Portugal's infrastructure company was asked by the government to ponder the viability of a rail link to Faro airport but now claims it also is studying the viability of connections to Lisbon and Porto airports.With a major project underway to connect Portugal’s main ports to a modern rail network, Infraestrutura de Portugal now intends to "connect the national rail network to the three mainland airports of Faro, Lisbon and Porto,” according to the Vice President of the rail and road business, Carlos Fernandes.
"We only received instructions from the ministry to look at Faro, but we are going to study railway connections to Lisbon and Porto airports," said Fernandes, explaining that in the case of the Algarve, "the problem is not financial but environmental."
Connecting the railway to the airport will only cost around €25 million, "but the proximity of the Ria Formosa brings complex environmental problems that are not easy to solve," according to Fernandes.
The Faro airport link was not even referred to in the presentation made by the railway boss, who concentrated on the electrification and modernisation of the Algarve line. Vítor Neto, a former Secretary of State for Tourism in the Guterres government, said the airport link investment is vital when looking at the eight million passengers using Faro airport each year.
The modernisation programme for the Algarve line will cost €57.9 million, involving the electrification of the line. Only the central section between Faro and Tunes has been electrified and that was 14 years ago, back in 2004.
Carlos Fernandes said that the implementation projects for these two remaining sections will be delivered before August this year and that the launching of the work can be done before the end of the year, or six months after that, if an environmental impact assessment is required (and should it be positive).
"Electrification of the line will reduce travel times, increase safety, reduce operating costs and reduce CO2 emissions by 120 million tons by 2045," claims Fernandes who also expects a 15% increase in travellers.
As further proof of Portugal’s inability to do joined-up thinking when it comes to infrastructure, the lead-time for new rolling stock for a newly electrified line is two to three years and refurbishing some old trains would be "difficult over the time period envisaged," according to railway company, CP, meaning that the old rolling stock would continue to be used, unable to take advantage of electrification.
As for Faro council’s pipe dream of seeing the Algarve's railway diverted around the north of the city, allowing the harbour to be reopened to the Ria Formosa as part of the development of the eastern industrial area of the city, Fernandes said of the re-routing of the line, "That's on another level, it's another dimension."
