Trains in Bolivia: tickets, passes and routes

Bolivia's passenger network is a shadow of what the maps suggest. The service that matters to travellers is the Ferroviaria Andina line between Oruro and Uyuni, on the altiplano south of La Paz. It runs a few times a week, takes roughly 7 hours and is the comfortable option on that corridor — reclining seats, a snack service and no mountain-road driving. The catch is the timetable: if your dates do not line up, the bus or a flight wins.

Getting to Oruro is the first step. From La Paz it is about 3.5 hours by bus, and Oruro is also a stop on the La Paz–Uyuni bus corridor. From Uyuni, trains continue south toward Villazón on the Argentine border, which is useful if you are crossing to La Quiaca rather than looping back north.

Other lines exist on paper — the eastern network around Santa Cruz and the Brazilian border — but passenger service there is limited or suspended. Do not build an itinerary around them without confirming with the operator first.

Buying tickets is old-fashioned. There is no national rail pass and no single booking site that covers everything; in practice you buy at the station ticket window, often a day or two ahead, with your passport. Online sales appear and disappear, so treat any web booking as a bonus rather than the plan. In the high season around Carnaval and the salt-flat months (roughly December to March), the useful departures fill; ask at the station as soon as you reach Oruro or Uyuni.

If the train does not fit, the alternatives are already on the site: flights of about 1 hour from La Paz to Uyuni or Sucre for US$60–150, or long-distance buses (La Paz–Uyuni about 10 h, Bs 50–250 by class). Both are more frequent than rail and less exposed to a single cancelled departure.