Porto, Dec. 26, 2024 (Lusa) - Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP), the country's state-owned infrastructure company, has commissioned a study so that it can ask the European Commission to allow it to build the planned Porto-Lisbon high-speed line in Iberian gauge, while complying with European regulations.
At issue is a cost-benefit analysis and an interoperability study that IP is obliged to send to Brussels if it wants to build the Porto-Lisbon high-speed line on Iberian gauge, as planned.
In the procedural documents, consulted by Lusa, IP recalls that EU member states can build new lines of the main and extended main European network without their being on European gauge, but that they must "request a temporary exception to this requirement supported by the result of a socio-economic cost-benefit analysis regarding the feasibility of the possible migration to the nominal gauge of the 1435mm European standard..., including an assessment of the impact on interoperability.
"IP wishes to make use of this possibility with regard to the AV [high-speed] Lisbon-Porto line," read part of the procedural documents, reflecting a strategic option backed by the current and previous governments.
The company responsible for the national railway recalls that "the new line was designed in Iberian gauge (1668 mm), thus contemplating the connection to the conventional railway system at various points."
In this way, the document continues, "the high-speed trains that will run on the new line will thus be able to access, via the conventional system, the existing stations located in the centre of Aveiro, Coimbra and Leiria, as well as serving various destinations on the conventional network, extending the benefits of the project to territories far beyond the high-speed corridor."
However, the station that will receive the high-speed train in Coimbra will be the current Coimbra B station (the other station downtown will close because of work on the Metro Mondego light rail system), and in Leiria the current station will be relocated to Barosa, outside the city centre.
According to the EU regulation, also consulted by Lusa, the assessment must be completed by 16 July 2026.
The study was commissioned from the consultancy TIS for €89,000.
The first phase (Porto-Soure) of the planned high-speed line should be ready by 2030, and the second phase (Soure-Carregado) is expected to be completed in 2032, with an onward connection to Lisbon via the existing North Line that currently links Portugal's two largest cities.
There will be stations prepared to receive the high-speed train in Campanhã (Porto), Santo Ovídio (Gaia), Aveiro, Coimbra, Leiria and Lisbon.
There are also plans to continue the line form Porto to Vigo, in Galicia, northwestern Spain, scheduled for 2032. That is to include stations at Porto's Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport, Braga, Ponte de Lima and Valença (the latter two being in Viana do Castelo district).
In total, according to the previous government, the investment costs for the Lisbon-Valença axis are around €7 billion to €8 billion.
JE/ARO // ARO.
Lusa
