Brussels warns Porto Vigo high-speed rail must be ready by 2040

The high-speed railway between Porto and Vigo is due to be completed in 2040, according to a preliminary agreement reached this week between the Spanish Presidency of the European Council and the European Parliament on the Trans-European Transport Network.

“For example, new high-speed rail links between Porto and Vigo and Budapest and Bucharest are due to be completed in 2040,” said a statement released by the European Council regarding the review of Trans-European Transport Network legislation.

On Monday evening, representatives of the Council Presidency and the European Parliament reached a preliminary agreement on the revision of the rules regarding the European Union (EU) guidelines for the development of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T, acronym in English).

Maintaining the Porto Vigo connection in 2040, as it already has, means that the connection will remain outside the main network, due for completion in 2030, but is part of the main network expansion included in the 2040 target. and remains ahead of the most comprehensive network with a target of 2050.

“The new 2040 interim target has been introduced to accelerate the completion of large-scale, particularly cross-border projects such as the missing rail lines, ahead of the 2050 target, which applies to the wider and more comprehensive network,” the Council said in a statement. . .

Work at European level will “continue at a technical level” and will then be subject to approval by each member state’s representations in Brussels, as well as undergoing a legal and linguistic review process before coming into force.

The 2040 date falls short of the political ambitions of the Euroregion Galicia and Northern Portugal, whose representatives confirmed on Tuesday ambitions for the project to be completed in 2030 or early next decade.

“The great project of structuring the Euroregion [Galiza – Norte de Portugal], that is, high speed, always remains in effect until it is reached. We currently have an objective target of 2030 or the early 1930s for this to be completed,” CCDR-Norte President António Cunha told reporters in Vila Nova de Gaia (Porto district) after breakfast with businessmen from both countries regions

At the same time, the President of the Galician Junta, Alfonso Rueda, also called 2030 a “commitment” and “to be a serious commitment, there is nothing better than putting budgets, money, public resources and making proposals on the table.”

“It is believed that it will be done here in Portugal. And if this starts and does not stop, then 2030 seems like a reasonable date,” the Galician leader said.

On November 7, Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP) announced the start of work on a high-speed rail link between Porto and Vigo in 2027/2028, noting that studies are already underway in both countries.

The official said the work was “unlikely to be completed in 2030,” but noted that nothing required it to be completed before 2040, the EU deadline for completing the “expanded trans-border Atlantic corridor network.”

In May, the Spanish government commissioned a study of the southern exit of Vigo, a section of high-speed rail between the city and Valenca, part of a proposed line that would connect Galicia with Porto.

The Lisbon-Porto high-speed road project, with an estimated cost of around 4.5 billion euros, provides connections between the two cities in one hour and 15 minutes, with possible stops in Leiria, Coimbra, Aveiro and Gaia.

At the same time, depending on coordination with Spain, the Porto Vigo connection is also being developed with a new connection to Francisco Sa Carneiro Airport and the Braga-Valence section (Viana do Castelo area).