Lisbon – Porto high-speed line

Porto – Lisbon
Route length:	298 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend High-speed line from Vigo Linha do Minho from Valença 298 Porto-Campanhã Linha do Minho from / to Porto São Bento Linha do Norte to Lisbon Santa Apolonia High-speed route from / to Madrid Linha do Norte from Porto-Campanhã Aveiro Linha do Norte to Lisbon Santa Apolonia Linha do Norte from Porto-Campanhã Coimbra-B Linha do Norte to Lisbon Santa Apolonia Linha do Oeste from Figueira da Foz Leiria Linha do Oeste to Agualva-Cacém - Lisbon Linha do Norte from Porto-Campanhã 0.0 Lisbon Oriente Linha de Cintura to Alcântara-Terra / Linha do Sul to Faro 2.5 Lisbon Braço de Prata not served by SFS trains to Barreiro to Barreiro Linha do Norte to Lisbon Santa Apolonia

The Lisbon – Porto high-speed line was to connect the two largest Portuguese cities with each other in standard gauge from 2015. The finished design envisaged a 298-kilometer route that the trains should cover in an hour and 11 minutes (without intermediate stops), which would be a saving of around 50% compared to today. Today the Alfa Pendular needs just under three hours between Santa Apolónia and Campanhã with eight stops in between (including Lisbon Oriente). The plans for the construction were shelved in March 2012.

course

The route should run between the Lisbon Oriente and Porto-Campanhã train stations . Intermediate stops were planned in Coimbra , Leiria and Aveiro . Mainly it should run more or less parallel to Linha do Norte , but allow speeds of 250 km / h throughout.

Course in central Portugal

To the north of Lisbon there were several variants of leading the route from Santarém either via Leiria on the Linha do Oeste or via Entroncamento - Tomar . It was decided to connect to Leiria. The city should be one of the three stopovers between Lisbon and Porto.

Course in the greater Lisbon area

For a long time there were discussions as to whether the route between Azambuja and Lisbon should be built on the western or eastern bank of the Tagus. Ultimately, the decision was made to build the line on the west bank. The planned airport near Alcochete was to be connected to the high-speed network by the Lisbon – Madrid high-speed line. The discussion arose because the new major airport was originally planned to be in Ota north of Lisbon.

option A

The most recently planned variant Margem Direita - Oriente / Campanhã envisaged that the line crosses the Linha do Norte at Azambuja and then enters the Lisbon urban area west of Sacavém and is then added to the existing railway network at the Gare do Oriente. With this variant, the high-speed route would have extended to the 298 kilometers mentioned above. It would also be cheaper than variant B and also has the advantage that direct trains can run between Madrid and Porto without having to turn around in Lisbon Oriente.

Variant B

The Margem Esquerda - Oriente / CTA / Campanhã would have planned that the line should cross the Tagus and the Rio Sorraia at Azambuja and then run along the eastern edge of Campo Tiro de Alcochete , to the east of Montijo in a huge triangle of tracks with the Lisbon high-speed line –Madrid to flow. Then the trains would have entered the Oriente station from the south on the Terceira Travessia do Tejo . With this variant, the route would have been a total of 342 kilometers and without intermediate stops the trains would have taken 1 hour and 24 minutes to get from Porto to Lisbon. Apart from the longer duration and the higher costs, trains that would have run between Madrid and Porto should have made heads in Lisbon.

history

Construction of the line should begin in 2010 so that the first trains could have started in 2013. Due to the severe financial crisis in Portugal, the socialist minority government under Prime Minister José Sócrates decided to postpone the project for at least two years. In March 2012, the Ministry of Economic Affairs announced that the plans would be abandoned for good.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Official page of the RAVE project ( Memento of the original from January 13, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ Timetable of the Combois de Portugal for long-distance trains ( Memento of the original from December 18, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ^ Announcement in the Railway Gazette about the termination of the Portuguese HGV program
4. ↑ ^{a b} Presentation of the Terceira Travessia do Tejo project by RAVE and the Portuguese Ministry of Transport ( Memento of the original from September 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , February 12, 2008 (PDF file 4.2 MB) 
5. ↑ Arranque das obras marcado para Fevereiro / Março de 2011 , RTP, November 8, 2010