Roads

South America has an extensive and rapidly expanding network of roads. In many countries, however, only a relatively small percentage of the roads are paved, and in the most remote areas they may be barely wide enough for two vehicles to pass easily. The remainder of the system consists of improved roads or simply of dirt roads.

In developing national segments of international highways, particular attention has been paid to road-integration projects. The Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank were heavily engaged in some of these projects, as, for example, in the construction of the bridge links joining Paraguay and Argentina, Argentina and Uruguay, and Paraguay and Brazil (all these links were completed by the late 1970s). A road linking Venezuela and Brazil allows north-south movement through the Amazon basin. Brazil continues to have the largest network of roads belonging to the Pan-American Highway system, which extends throughout the Americas.

Because of the size of the continent and the immense variety of physical environments, an efficient road network is of utmost importance. Roads not only provide the primary passenger routes for the great majority of people but also offer the most cost-effective means of moving goods within countries. In all South American countries, truck transportation has taken an increasingly large share of the volume of goods carried by land. In addition to stimulating economic development, routes such as the Transamazonian Highway and the Marginal de la Selva Highway linking the countries on the east side of the Andes, constructed since the 1970s, also represent attempts to spur development. The results of this effort, however, have been mixed, because making land available for settlement has often caused considerable ecological damage to the tropical forests.

Railways

In most South American countries railways have lost their dominant position as the major mode of transportation and have been replaced by the road networks that have developed rapidly since the 1960s. Moreover, rail transport is plagued by operational problems as well as by obsolete equipment. Almost all lines are single-tracked, which makes traffic slow and discourages passenger service. Many countries have two or more track gauges, which impedes the efficient integration of the rail system.

Until the 1980s, virtually all railways were owned by the state. Since then, governments, as part of their overall efforts to privatize their national economies, have divested themselves of a large percentage of publicly owned railroads. This has led to the elimination of a huge number of passenger routes as well as the reduction of much of the freight component.

Maritime transport

Sea transportation has long been a vital component of the transport systems of South American countries. The great majority of imports and exports to and from the continent moves by ship. South America has a number of outstanding natural harbours, such as Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Montevideo, and Valparaíso, along with numerous improved ports and roadsteads, including Buenos Aires, Callao, and Barranquilla. Many of these port facilities had degenerated significantly by the 1960s, to the point that some of the region’s largest ports were blacklisted by insurers and shipping companies. Since the early 1970s, many of these ports have undergone extensive renovation and modernization, including the installation of containerization facilities.

Several countries, such as Chile and Brazil, are making a determined effort to develop and enlarge their national merchant marines. This effort is meant partly to arrest earlier trends of having their trade carried by ships from outside the region and partly to promote regional integration and improve the national balance of payments.

Waterways

There are two inland waterway systems of international importance, the Paraguay-Uruguay basin (which includes territory in four countries) and the Amazon basin (six countries). Each has several thousand miles of navigable waterways. Furthermore, there are three other minor systems: the Magdalena in Colombia, the Orinoco in Venezuela, and the São Francisco in Brazil. The remaining rivers are unsuitable for navigation. There are drawbacks to using some inland waterways, including dry seasons, the direction of water flow, motionless current, and difficult rapids. In general, the volume of traffic on the waterways of South America is relatively small, and the prospects for increasing it are limited.

Air transportation

Air transportation has developed rapidly since World War II. The increase is particularly significant with respect to passenger traffic but applies less to the handling of bulky freight.

Each country has its own system of internal air services, operated until the late 1980s chiefly by government-owned or by heavily subsidized private companies. While several governments still operate an international carrier, privatization in the airline industry has spread to internal carriers. All the South American capitals and most of the large cities are linked by direct air services to the major traffic centres of the United States and Europe. Domestic traffic links have expanded extensively since the late 1970s, when “short take-off” jets were introduced into service.