One hour and fifteen minutes.
This is the time it will take to cover the 300 km that separate Lisbon from Porto with the new high-speed train that the Portuguese Prime Minister, António Costa, presented on September 28.
Construction of the line is expected to begin in 2024 and will be done in stages with partial commissioning expected in 2030. Eventually, the line is expected to be extended to Vigo in northwestern Spain.
This project will put the country “
at the forefront of the fight against climate change [and] to change the paradigm of mobility
”, declared António Costa.
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Currently, the journey between the two main cities of Portugal lasts at least 2 hours 50 with tilting trains (Alfa Pendular) capable of crossing curves at a higher speed than conventional trains.
Coimbra and Aveiro are among the cities served.
The one-way ticket is offered at €31.90 in 2nd class and €44.60 in 1st class, according to the website of the national company CP.
This line should welcome some 16 million passengers in 2031 against six million currently.
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Lisbon-Madrid in 4 to 5 hours from 2024
By then, Portugal will enter the era of high speed with the opening of a Madrid-Lisbon line expected in 2024. It will significantly reduce travel time between the two capitals.
Today, it takes nine hours to complete this 600 km journey using three different trains.
With the new line, it will only take between four and five hours and no change.
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This will facilitate rail links between France, Spain and Portugal in the coming years.
Until March 2020, it was possible to leave Paris at midday to arrive the next morning in Lisbon by making a single change.
In Hendaye (French-Spanish border), the Trenhotel Sud Expresso night train made it possible to reach the Portuguese capital in 12 hours without changing.
Shut down with the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been permanently removed, as has the Trenhotel Lusitania which linked Madrid to Lisbon at night.
Today, linking France to Portugal remains possible at the cost of numerous connections and dissuasive crossing frequencies... Rail links between France and Spain as well as between Spain and Portugal are almost non-existent because , in particular, a war between rail operators and a different gauge of the different rails between the three countries.
A problem that will be solved with the new high-speed lines that will adopt the standard European gauge.
