Porto, Portugal, Aug. 6, 2025 (Lusa) -The Porto Metro has opened the last tunnel of the Rosa Line project, between the Casa da Música and Galiza stations, and expects to open the infrastructure in six months, behind the latest date announced.
“We always agreed with the contractor that after this point we would have around six months to complete the work, and when we say complete the work, we mean getting it ready to start commercial operation. I would say that in the first quarter of 2026 we will be in a position to start commercial operation,” Tiago Braga, president of Metro do Porto, told journalists on Tuesday.
He was speaking at the construction site of the new Casa da Música station, which will house both the Rosa Line (São Bento - Casa da Música) and the Rubi Line (Santo Ovídio - Casa da Música), after the completion of the tunnel between Casa da Música and Galiza station.
Tiago Braga was questioned about the delay in the project, which was due to be completed last year, then postponed to July this year, and later to the end of 2025, but he stressed that he preferred to see “the glass half full” rather than dwell on the delay.
He attributed the delay and difficulties in excavating the last tunnel of the Pink Line to “the geological characteristics and geotechnics of the terrain”, a factor that he acknowledged had not always been well understood because they were “technical issues”.
“We ourselves often had some difficulty understanding how, after a project, how the buildings and the whole context behaved. And if we ourselves often had to reflect on this, surely other people also have difficulty understanding it,” he said.
However, Tiago Braga assured that “everything, absolutely everything possible was done to ensure that the work was carried out in the best possible circumstances, on time, but fundamentally from the point of view of safety, which was a ‘red line’,” he stressed, welcoming the absence of serious accidents.
“The work had to proceed at this pace because the technical conditions required it. No one is more interested in finishing the work quickly than the Metro do Porto Board of Directors itself,” he stressed.
For Tiago Braga, the opening of a tunnel "is the most important milestone in any geotechnical construction project’’, part of a project covering around 3.5 kilometres that is “100% underground”.
“From now on, the construction work – not that it will be simpler – will be more controllable, with fewer risks in terms of the impact on the construction process,” he predicted.
Also present at the event was the Secretary of State for Mobility, Cristina Pinto Dias, who stressed that there will only be a “change in culture” and a shift “from individual to collective transport if there is added value, particularly in terms of travel time”.
“At the same time, we are working towards the important decarbonisation targets we have to meet. As you know, by 2030, 29% of the energy we use in transport must be renewable, on the one hand, and we also have CO2 [carbon dioxide] targets to meet, which, if we do not meet, we will be penalised,” she stressed.
Regarding the government's appointment of Emídio Gomes as the new president of Metro do Porto, she said that ‘there is no date yet’ for him to take office, but “the process is proceeding naturally and will take as long as necessary”, after approval has been obtained from the Porto Metropolitan Area (AMP).
As for the outgoing management, Cristina Pinto Dias expressed “absolute recognition” for the team led by Tiago Braga, also composed of Lúcia Leão Lourenço and Pedro Azeredo Lopes.
At a cost of €304.7 million, the Rosa line will connect the current Casa da Música and São Bento metro stations, with intermediate stations at Hospital de Santo António and Praça da Galiza.
JE/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
