The Secretary of State for Infrastructures said today that the government is investing and will invest further in the national rail network to 'finally reverse the cycle, already too long, of the abandonment of rail transport'.
By 2020, Portugal will invest an average of €460 million per year on the rail system road, a "clear and unequivocal" commitment, said Secretary of State, Guilherme W. d’Oliveira Martins who did not mention the usual 75% contribution from European funds as this would make the government appear less generous and inspired.
"The 'Ferrovia 2020' infrastructure investment plan will allow us definitively to reverse the long cycle of abandoning rail transport," said Martins, adding that the government wants to change "the current paradigm for several decades."
In six years, €2.7 billion will be invested in the national rail network, covering the construction of 214 kilometres of new lines and the upgrading of 979 kilometres, including the Linha do Norte which is part of the trans-European network and is the backbone of the national rail system as it ensures a direct link between the main cities of central and northern Portugal," said Martins.
Rambling on like a true Secretary of State in the certain knowledge that he will not be around to explain why little of the above investment will ever happen, Martins selected emotive phrases guaranteed to get media Brownie points, including “the cohesion of the national territory” and the “mobility of the population” also “a catalyst for the development of the national economy and exports" and then a cracking sentence, “a major vector in the mobility of people in urban areas, intra and inter-regional and goods, in a national and international perspective."
Next it was time for ‘blaming the last lot’ as Martins said that in recent years mobility in Portugal had been studied and plans had been made, revised and updated, but very little had been achieved, adding that the current government took a policy option not reopen dossiers that already have technical consensus and to move forward with the implementation of the work which the EU largely will fund.
The head of Infraestruturas de Portugal, António Ramalho, accompanied Martins at the opening of a section of railway up north, and was delighted to hear of a new life cycle for infrastructure, none of which seems to involve the construction of a simple link from the Algarve’s single east-west railway line to Faro airport.
