Passenger River Transport Serving Road-disconnected Communities near Manaus, Brazil

Many small communities near Manaus are not connected to the road network and depend on waterways for passenger transport. Using field observations and documentary evidence collected in June 2025 in the Tupé region in the Brazilian Amazon, this article documents how passenger transport to these road-disconnected communities operates in practice. The findings describe a layered mobility system combining fare-regulated cooperative services with predictable daytime departure frequencies, on-demand private motorboats, and household-owned wooden boats used for local circulation. Routes and fares are stable, while schedules remain flexible, illustrating how regular passenger transport is organized in the absence of road access.