Investment in the Lisbon – Valença axis of the high-speed rail line to Galicia is estimated by the government at around 7 to 8 billion euros, the Secretary of State for Infrastructure told Lusa.
“I don’t have a precise figure, but the overall investment between Lisbon and Valença, if we include the second phase of the Porto – Valença link, is likely to be around 7 or 8 billion euros,” Frederico Francisco told Lusa at the São Bento train station in Porto, about the high-speed rail project, for which the tender for the first phase was launched on Friday.
The Assistant Secretary of State for Infrastructure explained that each section put out to tender will always be around two billion euros, divided into Porto-Oiã, Oiã-Soure, Soure-Carregado, Braga-Valença (including the connection between Porto and Francisco Sá Carneiro airport) and, finally, airport-Braga.
Asked about the amount and how it compares with the estimated cost of the new Lisbon airport, which is around 8 billion euros, Frederico Francisco said that the money would be “better spent” on the railroads.
Precisely in order to connect the high-speed line to Lisbon’s future airport, the access to the capital planned for the third phase of the project, “depending on where the future airport will be located, can enter from the right bank or the left bank of the River Tagus, while always maintaining the possibility of trains arriving in Lisbon via the Northern Line”, which will be quadrupled on arrival in Lisbon to receive the high-speed services.
Asked whether the ‘detour’ to the airport could harm connections to Lisbon, Frederico Francisco said that “with the level of demand and the level of frequency” planned, “and with the increased demand generated by an airport, there will always be enough services to be able to serve both destinations”.
As for the connection to Porto airport, when asked if a connection from the current Leixões line to the airport infrastructure wouldn’t be enough, the Secretary of State argued that, despite the costs, it’s a “difference between [the journey time between] Campanhã and the airport taking 10 minutes or 40”.
“In any case, no final decision has been taken and, in fact, the ideal would be for both things to be possible at the same time: a direct connection from Campanhã to the airport, but also allowing suburban services to be operated via the Leixões line,” he said.
Asked about Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas’ criticism of the project, saying that he would have preferred a link from the capital to Madrid rather than to Porto and Vigo, the government official said that “it doesn’t make any sense”.
“Trying to base myself as much as possible on the data from the demand studies, the Porto – Lisbon route has demand estimates that are much higher than those for the Lisbon – Madrid route, and when I say much higher, I mean ten times higher,” specifically around 12 million passengers a year for Porto-Lisbon compared to “a million or a million and a half” for the Lisbon – Madrid route.
According to the government official, studies show that the Oporto-Lisbon line “takes around a million and a bit passengers from aviation and the rest from road transport”, in a context where there are “more than 100 million car journeys between Oporto and Lisbon and the cities in between”.
For Frederico Francisco, the studies that support the high-speed rail link between Lisbon and Vigo show that “there is no other intervention in the national rail network that can produce the kind of changes and the kind of transformation in the way rail transport, and transport in general, is carried out in the country”.
“The situation we have today, looking at the structure of our rail network and the structure of demand, we have a great concentration of transport demand on the Lisbon – Porto axis, or if you like, on the Braga – Setúbal axis, which is no coincidence, because 80% of the country’s population is concentrated in this strip of territory,” around 8 million people.
In this range, the mobility panorama “will change significantly, that’s what the existing studies show, not just in terms of travel time, but in terms of supply”, arguing that Frederico Francisco will increase the flexibility of those who need to travel, without having to think of the car as the most advantageous means.
“The kind of planning flexibility that a line like this gives people is much greater than what currently exists,” where planning is required, for example, for a trip between Porto and Lisbon, and “it’s a paradigm shift that will only be truly felt later, when the service is up and running.”
The high-speed line, “with the demand that is estimated”, and as the 60 daily services per direction had already been announced, means that it will be possible to have “more than one train every half hour, in both directions”.
