Algarve MPs, José Carlos Barros and Cristóvão Norte, say that they can not accept that the rail link to Faro airport has been frozen by the government, nor do they accept the excuse that environmental issues are sufficient grounds to drop the project.
"It is essential to clarify everything that has to be clarified on the subject, because the strategic importance of this project, from the mobility, tourism and regional economy points of view, is too important for us to accept that the Government drops it," say the MPs.
According to the two PSD politicians, recent statements by the Planning Minister that has kicked the project into the long grass, were "surprising," and they noted that the rail link to Faro airport has already undergone an environmental assessment.
"Moreover, and under the law, the Environmental Impact Assessment process would always be required in later stages," after the project has been approved in principal.
Barros and Norte have questioned the Ministry of the Environment to find out whether the survey has thrown up any untoward aspects that legitimately has stopped the project in its tracks, or whether the survey is being used as an excuse to block approval for the rail link.
In January 2017, minister Marquês visited the region on a whirlwind tour of bullshit spreading and blamed 'environmental issues' were stopping the rail link progressing, before an impact assessment had been commissioned.
Marques stated, when asked about this vital rail link: "We do not know if it is possible. In the coming months, we will launch the environmental impact study and, if possible, this investment will have to be scheduled after the electrification of the Algarve line.”
Citing, funding, environmental and useage issues, Pedro Marques also said in January that the rail link might go ahead "if not before, at the beginning of the next Community framework," i.e. after 2020.
This was another way of saying, ‘forget it.’ For the local opposition MPs, this additional and deliberate delay to the rail link is not acceptable as the project has been worked on for years but remains a political football, as indeed it was when their party leader, Padro Passos Coelho, was prime minster.
Marquês also stated that he undertook to place the project "as one of my priorities for future work on Portugal’s railways,” leaving the Algarve in no doubt at all that he has no intention of seeing this project through.
