Rail transport in Peru

Rail transport in Peru has a varied history. Peruvian rail transport has never formed a true network, primarily comprising separate lines running inland from the coast and built according to freight need rather than passenger need.

Many Peruvian railroad lines owe their origins to contracts granted to United States entrepreneurs Henry Meiggs^[1] and W. R. Grace and Company^[2] but the mountainous nature of Peru made expansion slow and much of the surviving mileage is of twentieth-century origin. It was also challenging to operate, especially in the age of the steam locomotive.^[3]

Also Ernest Malinowski, Polish engineer in exile distinguished himself in the Central Trans-Andean Railway project which runs from Callao to Huancayo.

In the latter part of the 1880s, the principal public railways, the Central and Southern, with others, passed to the control of the Peruvian Corporation, registered in London and controlled by Americans Michael and William R. Grace.^[4] In 1972 they were nationalized as Empresa Nacional de Ferrocarriles del Perú (ENAFER), but this survived as an operator only until 1999 when most surviving lines were privatized. Regular passenger traffic now operates over only a small proportion of the mileage.

The Tacna-Arica Railway crosses the boundary with Chile, running twice daily, once in the morning and once in the late afternoon. The Southern Railway provides connection with Bolivia by ship across Lake Titicaca.