The European Commission has already mobilized around 196 million euros for Portugal, since 2014, for studies and works on the high-speed line with a view to the future Lisbon-Madrid connection, hoping that the project “will be a reality”.
“[A linha de alta velocidade] Madrid-Lisbon will be a reality in the coming years. And, as you can see on the map and from the efforts we are making since the beginning of this mandate, we have to ensure that the single market works well and that Europe is truly united, which means that I am in constant dialogue with the Ministers of Transport and Infrastructure of France, Spain and Portugal, to ensure that the Iberian continent is well connected by rail and road in the coming years”, said the European Commissioner for Transport, Apostolos Tzitzikostas.
Speaking at a press conference in Brussels on the day that the community executive presents a plan for a European high-speed rail network, the European responsible for supervision pointed out that “it is very important to ensure that there is adequate financing”.
In his response to Lusa, Apostolos Tzitzikostas said that “financial accessibility […] is provided by competition”, when asked about possible prices to be charged compared to those of low-cost airlines, for example.
“If we present people with fast, well-connected trains that connect many cities and capitals across Europe, with a way to get somewhere quickly and safely, you can be sure that citizens will definitely choose the train over any other means of transport,” he said.
So far, according to data obtained by Lusa, the European Commission has already allocated 196 million euros from the Connecting Europe Mechanism, which finances the construction, development and modernization of infrastructure, to five projects for the Portuguese side of the railway line, including sections originating in the ports of Setúbal and Sines.
Since 2014, the Sines/Elvas railway line in the Évora-Caia section and the technical station at kilometer (km) 118 of the southern line have been supported with 116 million euros.
Between the following year and 2020, 2.5 million euros were mobilized in studies for the southern international corridor (Sines/Setúbal/Lisbon-Caia).
For the second phase of the Évora-Caia section, on the Sines/Elvas railway connection, 55.8 million euros have been awarded since 2016.
Since 2020, studies have been financed for the high-speed rail connection for the Lisbon-Madrid section for a total of 3.9 million euros.
An increase of 17.4 million euros since 2021 for the Évora-Évora North section of the Sines/Elvas railway connection.
Since 2014, around 750 million euros have been allocated to support the high-speed line connecting Extremadura to Madrid.
The governments of Portugal and Spain and the European Commission agreed last Thursday on a set of actions that will make it possible to move forward with the rail connection between Lisbon and Madrid by 2030, with a five-hour journey, which will then be three hours by 2034.
The project is part of the European investment in railways.
The idea of connecting Lisbon and Madrid via a high-speed line has been talked about for several years and, in the 2000s, the governments of Portugal and Spain had already agreed that the line should cross the border in Elvas and Badajoz.
On the Portuguese side, the high-speed section between Lisbon and Elvas was planned during the previous financial crisis, but the project was suspended due to costs, project controversies and the need to adapt the railway gauge.