High speed rail project taken off shelf and dusted down

 In Infrastructure, News, TGV

The Government has resurrected a high-speed TGV rail project between Porto and Lisbon which will stop at Gaia, Aveiro, Leiria and Lisbon and cut the journey time to 1 hours and 15 minutes.

The projected service is estimated to triple both supply and demand and will offer 60 daily services.
The Vice-President of Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP), Carlos Fernandes said this week when presenting the Porto-Lisbon High Speed Rail Link that the project would provide 60 daily services, in addition to the 17 on the conventional inter-cities line. The operation compares to the 25 services that are currently run on the line between the two main cities.
Carlos Fernandes therefore emphasised that the current train service offer would be tripled, as well as expectations on the demand.
“We expect to maintain the 6 million passengers we currently have on that line and with the TGV bring that number up to 16 million passengers. When the line is completed, the journey between Lisbon and Porto will take under two hours.
The project will be executed in a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) financed by funds from the European Community, the European Investment Bank and monies from the State Budget. The project will be completed by 2030 at an estimated cost of €4.5Bn for two phases of works.