Uruguay
Uruguay is the second-smallest country in South America, 176,215 km² with about 3.4 million people, roughly half of them in Montevideo. Argentina lies across the Río de la Plata to the west and south-west, Brazil to the north and north-east, and the Atlantic to the south-east. There are no mountains to speak of — the interior is gently rolling grassland, the cuchillas rising only a few hundred metres — and the country is overwhelmingly given over to cattle and agriculture, with a long line of beach resorts along the coast east of the capital.
The railway reached here early: the Ferrocarril Central del Uruguay was founded with domestic capital in 1866 and its first 17 km opened on 1 January 1869. What grew from that is about 2,900 km of line, unusually all of it 1,435 mm standard gauge and worked by diesel. Passenger services shrank almost to nothing in the late twentieth century, but the spine north from Montevideo has recently been rebuilt, and the state operator AFE still runs one passenger service, in the far north.
Rail journeys in Uruguay
Good to know
Is Uruguay's railway standard gauge?
Yes, and that is worth noting because it is unusual in the region — the network is entirely 1,435 mm, the same as most of Europe, rather than the metre or broad gauges common elsewhere in South America. It is worked by diesel throughout; there is no electrification.
How much passenger service is there?
One train. AFE's whole scheduled passenger operation is the Tacuarembó–Rivera service in the far north, which runs on Mondays and Fridays. Montevideo's suburban trains were suspended on 14 June 2019 for the Ferrocarril Central works and have not been reinstated. The operator's own Servicio de pasajeros page is the authority on what is running, because this is a network where a service can be suspended and restarted at short notice.
What is the Ferrocarril Central?
The rebuilt main line running north from Montevideo towards Paso de los Toros, opened in 2024 — a major reconstruction driven by industrial freight, which has given Uruguay a modern railway for the first time in generations. It was built for freight and carries no scheduled passenger trains; restoring them to the Montevideo suburbs is discussed but not scheduled.
Is there a rail pass?
No. Uruguay is outside the international pass schemes, and with a small passenger network there would be little for one to cover. Tickets are bought from AFE.