Empresa Ferroviaria Oriental, S.A.

Oriental was privatized in March 1996 and is owned 50% by pension funds on behalf of the Bolivian people. For the convenience of customers, business may be conducted in Spanish, Portuguese and English.

Oriental connects the rich agricultural center surrounding Santa Cruz and the natural gas producing region of southern Bolivia with Argentina to the south, Brazil to the east, and to world markets through transloading shipments onto barges operating within the Hidrovia, a system of waterways extending to export terminals in Uruguay and Argentina.

With 463 employees, 28 locomotives, and approximately 750 freight cars, the Oriental handles some 30,000 carloads (more than 1 million metric tonnes) of freight per year and serves nearly 500,000 passengers. The most heavily traveled portion of the line is from Santa Cruz, adjacent to the most productive soybean region in the world, to Puerto Suarez on the eastern border with Brazil. This portion of the line typically carries about 88% of the Oriental’s cargo and 80% of its passengers. The remainder is transported along the southern portion of the line to Yacuiba, on Bolivia’s southern border with Argentina.

Nearly 90% of Oriental's cargo serves the needs of importing and exporting customers, including such international companies as Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), and Brazil’s Petrobras, with 11% destined locally. More than half of the traffic is in soybeans, the raw beans and derivatives, with the remainder in wheat and related flours, petroleum products, cement and construction materials. While the narrow, one-meter gauge of the Oriental limits maximum loading to 18 tonnes per axle, GWI anticipates growth in Bolivia through increased cooperation and market development with interchange partners.