Portugal’s prime minister, António Costa, has outlined a €26.3bn “2030 National Investment Programme,” which includes investing €10.51bn in 16 rail projects. This includes a new Lisbon – Porto high-speed line, with a travel time of 1h 15min; a new cross-border Porto – Vigo line with a one hour travel time; the modernisation and complete electrification of the network by 2030; an increase in capacity in urban areas; and the replacement and purchase of new rolling stock.
The Lisbon – Porto high-speed line, which has been allocated €4.5bn, will segregate fast and slow services, reducing journey times and increasing capacity for both passenger and freight services. The connection will be built in two phases, starting with the construction of the Porto – Soure section.
The first phase of the Porto – Valença – Vigo high-speed line, which has been allocated €900m, will reduce journey times between Porto and the Galicia region in Spain, increase the quality of long-distance services, free up capacity for suburban and freight traffic on the Minho line, and connect with Sá Carneiro Airport.
Electrification of the national network has been allocated €740m. The programme will increase capacity, eliminate bottlenecks and allow trains of up to 750m to pass each other on some parts of the network. Three rolling stock programmes worth a total of €1.7bn cover the purchase of urban, regional and long-distance trains for Portuguese Trains. Emphasis is furthermore given to development of the Southern International Corridor (€150m) and the Northern International Corridor (€600m).
