Taking the wind out of the sails of a recently published political manifesto (click here), prime minister António Costa was in Elvas today with his Spanish counterpart Mariano Rajoy to launch the public tender for the largest section of railway line to be constructed in Portugal in the last hundred years.
The 94 km Évora-Elvas-Caia line – described as a “rainshower of millions” in community funding – is the ‘missing link’ that will finally see Portugal connected to the rest of Europe.
Work on it is expected to start in 2019, and be completed by 2022.
Explain reports, the “construction of the line will allow for the transportation by rail of products from Sines port, creating a form of international southern corridor”.
In total, the cost is expected to run to €509 million, of which 56% is covered by European funding.
At the same time as the prime ministers’ photo call in Elvas, planning minister Pedro Marques was inaugurating the upgrading of the rail link between Covilhã and Guarda – again heavily subsidised by Portugal’s Ferrovia 2020 programme, which coincidentally is running way behind schedule.
Marques told journalists last week that delays in implementing projects (only 15% of those programmed up to 2018 have started, reports tabloid Correio da Manhã) has been down to the need for various preliminary studies, including environmental impact evaluations.
But today’s news has definitely launched some new energy into the air.
Europe’s commissioner for transport Violeta Bluc highlighted the importance of the two projects – stressing that European assistance was “absolutely necessary”.
Said prime minister Costa, the developments signal a “new time” with a lot more public investment than Portugal has been seeing recently. He said investment would increase by 40% this year, principally in the areas of health, education and infrastructures (like railways).
The opening up of Spain to “products coming in to Sines port” will tie in with a number of lucrative deals not least the purchase of cheap US gas (click here).
Totting up the final bill, the commissioner said “500 billion additional euros would be needed until 2030 to conclude all the sections of line still lacking in the nine European transport corridors, including the Atlantic corridor” reports Jornal de Notícias – inferring that this is the name to Portugal’s upgrading system.
Bizarrely, it was only last week that a manifesto led by former PSD minister Mira Amaral warned that Portugal was in danger of figuratively ‘missing the boat’ when it came to investment in much-needed railway infrastructure.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
Photo: https://twitter.com/antoniocostapm
