There High Speed Railway Line “Lisbon-Porto” (Portugal) represents a crucial infrastructure project for the internal mobility of Portugal. With his 290 km in total lengththe ultimate aim is to drastically reduce train travel times within the country (going from the current 2 hours and 45 minutes to 1 hour and 15 minutes), thanks to increasingly widespread integration with other European railway lines. Let’s see in more detail what the project involves and when it will come into operation.
What does the project for the Lisbon-Porto railway line involve?
Let’s start first with the expected timescales for the construction and delivery of the infrastructure. According to the latest estimates and forecasts, the “Lisbon-Porto” High Speed Rail Line will come into operation no earlier than 2030. As anticipated, the project involves the construction of 290km of high-speed rail, predicting a travel time between Lisbon and Porto of 1 hour and 15 minutes.
The realization was divided into multiple phasesas is usually done for the realization of such important projects. There first phase provides for the construction of the first section between Port (Campanhã) e Soure (Coimbra), for a total length of 143kmwhich will be finished building in 2028.
The second involves the construction of the section that will go from Soure to Carregadofor a total distance traveled of 115km. In this case, final completion is expected by 2030. The third phase, the one between Carregado And Lisbon (East), it will be approx 40kmAlso in this case the estimates tell us that construction will be finished no earlier than 2030.
What are the positive impacts of the project
A first benefit will be achieved by drastically reducing the travel times of the route from the city of Lisbon to that of Porto which, to date, requires 2 hours and 45 minutes. Among other things, according to estimates, such an infrastructure will be able to transport well 10 million passengers per year.
The entire project is part of a larger one program for the expansion and modernization of railway infrastructure of the Iberian Peninsula (National Investment Plan 2030), and aims to integrate and improve the rail infrastructure connection with Spain. In particular, the construction of a line that will connect Porto and Vigo, in Galicia, is also planned. The final intent will be to reduce to sun 3 hours the travel time between the city of Lisbon and the Spanish capital Madrid.
Clearly this infrastructure was entirely designed with a view to maximum possible sustainability, as one of the intentions is also to reduce travel by plane and car, with a drastic reduction in emissions.
The main criticisms of the new railway line
As often happens with projects of this scale, the main critical issues concern: costs el’environmental impact. In fact, it is estimated that the construction of the infrastructure will cost the state coffers a lot 6 billion eurosa certainly important and heavy figure for a country like Portugal, which already has a significant debt position. We then asked ourselves, among the most critical, whether the gain in terms of travel times actually makes the construction of this work convenient: the train Alpha Pendular and buses, in fact, offer relatively convenient connections between the two Portuguese cities. In fact, there are those who consider it not at all convenient to invest 6 billion euros to earn “only” 75 minutes early.
