| Arica-La Paz railway | |
|---|---|
| Overview | |
| Locale | Chile, Bolivia |
| Operation | |
| Opened | 1912 |
| Closed | 2005, under repair |
| Technical | |
| Line length | 440 km (273 mi) |
| No. of tracks | Single track with passing loops |
| Track gauge | 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) |
| Highest elevation | 4,265 m (13,993 ft) |
The Arica-La Paz railway or Ferrocarril de Arica-La Paz (FCALP) was built by the Chilean government under the Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1904 between Chile and Bolivia. It was inaugurated on 6 March 1912, and is the shortest line from the Pacific Coast to the interior. It is 440 km (273 mi) long, of which 233 km (145 mi) is in Bolivian territory. The first section is a narrow gauge rack railway, and it crosses the frontier in the Andes at an elevation of 4,265 m (13,993 ft) and connects with the Bolivian lines near Viacha. When the railway is in operation, it provides an outlet for Bolivian copper, some tin, wool and other products and an inlet for much of the merchandise imported by Bolivia.
The railway was built by the German company Philipp Holzmann[1]. It has 7 tunnels.
The distance Arica-La Paz via this railway is shorter than the other two alternatives:
The railway was in service until 2005 when part of the line was destroyed by invierno boliviano ("Bolivian winter") flash floods. After the operators of the line went bankrupt, Empresa de los Ferrocarriles del Estado took over control of the Chilean section of the railway in 2006 and announced plans to repair and reopen it.[2]. Rehabilitation work is estimated to take about 2 years and to be completed in December 2011.[3] The railway would have to compete with an asphalt road that parallels the tracks, which is preferred by many users.