Vila Real, Portugal, Sept. 16, 2025 (Lusa) - Portugal's infrastructure minister said on Tuesday that the government's priorities are clear and that the intention is to electrify the entire Douro line to Pocinho and then Barca d'Alva.
Miguel Pinto Luz was at Peso da Régua Station, in the district of Vila Real, today to mark the start of the electrification work on the Marco de Canaveses-Régua section of the Douro Railway Line, which was awarded for €110 million and has an execution time of three years.
According to Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP), the overall investment in this section amounts to €165 million, with €70 million in EU funds.
Between works and studies, the overall investment in the modernisation of the Douro Line is €460 million, from Caíde to Barca d'Alva.
The electrification that is now going ahead, between Marco de Canaveses (Porto district) and Régua, is an "essential project" according to the minister.
"That's why you didn't see me there in my speech, trying to point the finger at the delays of the past, trying to point at other governments, it doesn't matter. What matters is that we have to do it, because it's not sustainable for a region like the Douro, which serves the country so well from a tourist point of view, from the point of view of exports, from the point of view of culture, to continue not to be served by an electrified network," he said.
And that, he emphasised, is why "this step is being taken".
"But that's not all. Today, it also became clear that the government's priorities don't stop there, and we have to reach Pocinho and then Barca d'Alva. And that's why the line has to be fully electrified and fully upgraded to give this region (...) the territorial justice it was due," he emphasised.
Asked about the reactivation of the Douro line between Pocinho and Barca d'Alva, which has been closed since 1988, Miguel Pinto Luz emphasised that the "priorities are clear".
"We want to electrify the entire line," he emphasised.
He also mentioned that he had issued a challenge to CP because this is a "section that has a smaller population and therefore the commercial value of this operation is different, so various solutions have to be considered".
"We can't jeopardise CP's sustainability. This was a challenge I put to CP, and I addressed it to the chairman of CP's Board of Directors so that we could think about this section," he emphasised.
This section, he argued, has to have a more cultural, more touristic dimension, where we also have to take advantage of endogenous resources and involve local authorities, the Regional Coordination and Development Commissions and tourism organisations.
"We have to think of creative solutions to make this section profitable (...) We can't keep putting the onus on CP, which will then put “deficits” on the future and on future generations, and that's not what we want," he emphasised.
The Douro Line connects Porto to Pocinho (171.522 kilometres). The electrification of the route has been advocated for several years, as has the reopening of the section between Pocinho (Vila Nova de Foz Côa) and Barca d'Alva (Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo), which was deactivated in 1988.
The section between Caíde and Marco de Canaveses has already been electrified and modernised, corresponding to an investment of 33 million euros.
The modernisation project for the section between Peso da Régua and Pocinho, valued at around €180 million, is also currently underway, as are studies for the final section between Pocinho and Barca d'Alva, corresponding to an estimated investment of €80 million.
The overall investment in the Douro Line is estimated at around €460 million.
PLI/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
