Portugal Remains Committed to High Speed Rail
Magyarul a pendolino.blog.hu-n.
Portugal is committed to the planned high speed lines (dotted on the right map) despite the current crisis, confirmed Ana Paula Vitorino, Portuguese state secretary for transport to Reuters. The socialist government is planning to launch all tenders this year for the Lisbon-Madrid line, including rolling stock (trains) and a 3rd bridge on river Tagus in Lisbon. It is just the right time considering that in Spain, the tender applications are already open for the same line.
The political opposition is criticizing the plan (along with the idea of a new airport for Lisbon) simply stating that the country does not have the resources. The government, however, argues that these enormous works would create tens of thousands of jobs, which is exactly what is needed.
The Lisbon-Madrid line currently planned will use dedicated high speed tracks with speeds of 300-350 km/h, TGV-like systems and trainsets, and decrease the travel time between the two capitals to 2h45. The rail link will be standard gauge like the existing Spanish AVE high speed network (Alstom AVE trains on the picture at Madrid-Atocha), but unlike most other railways in Spain and Portugal, using the broader, legacy Iberian gauge. The AVE – if all goes planned – is simply becoming the biggest European TGV service, easily competing with France and Germany.
A significant issue in Spain and Portugal is their non-standard gauge of 1,668 mm. In theory, broad gauge might be useful for oversized and/or high speed trains (the Japanese Shinkansen uses broad gauge), but in general Western and Central European practice, the 1,435 standard gauge has become, ahem, standard, including German and French high speed lines. But Spain and Portugal must have had some historical reason 150+ years ago (like preventing French military invasion or an easy compromise between the legacy measuring systems of the two countries), and therefore til today it has lead to the strange situation that regular Iberian rail lines are broad gauge, and newly built high speed lines (notably the Spanish AVE, as well as the planned Lisbon-Madrid) are standard. Spain also uses Talgo technology for trains compatible with both gauges with the help of switching stations.
The EUR 7.8 billion budget mentioned in the press should also include the Lisbon-Porto and Port-Vigo line according to RAVE – Rede ferroviaria de alta velocidade, the company founded to coordinate the projects. The travel time between Lisbon and Porto has already decreased to 2h35 since the introduction of the Alfa Pendular (pictured in the famous station of Lisboa-Oriente by Calatrava) tilting train services and partial track improvements, further reduction to 1h15 is expected once works are finished.
There are great high-resolution before/after pictures on improvements on the Lisbon-Évora section in this topic.
Further pictures of Portuguese trains and railways (including the Porto light metro and the historic Lisbon trams) (click here if you can’t see below):
Original map from Wikipedia, photos by Luis F Franco and me.
