Porto–Lisbon high speed rail link gets EU funding
The first phase of the project will receive EU co-financing of 813.16 million euros.
The Portuguese Alta Velocidade project is one of 134 selected within the January call for the Connecting Europe Mechanism (CEF), and one of those that will receive greater co-financing.
In a race against time, in mid-January Portugal launched the tender for the first section (Porto – Oiã) of the Porto – Lisbon High Speed line and at the end of the month Infraestruturas de Portugal presented the application to the CEF, totaling 875 million euros (729 million euros from the “CEF Cohesion envelope” and 146 million from the general “cake”).
The application covered the first phase of the High Speed line, corresponding to the Porto – Oiã and Oiã-Soure sections.
According to the statement issued today by the European Commission, the approved Portuguese application corresponds to “construction of the first phase of the new High Speed line between Lisbon and Porto, covering 142 km of railway works and 51 km of new single track connections and which will have as its main benefits the reinforcement of the quality and interoperability of the High Speed network, allowing a future rail connection between Portugal and Spain and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions”.
Of the 813 million euros currently allocated by Brussels, 729 million (corresponding to the “envelope” of the Cohesion Fund) will be passed on to the future concessionaires of the two PPPs, at the rate of 480 million euros for the Porto – Oiã section and 249 million euros for the Oiã – Soure section, thereby reducing “the availability payments that will be due to the concessionaires during the first 25 years of operation of the infrastructure”, explained Infraestruturas de Portugal at the time.