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The preliminary document referring to the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PPR) delivered by the Government in Brussels foresees 1032 million euros for sustainable mobility, the vast majority of which will be directed to new projects to expand the Lisbon and Porto metro. The most important news seems to be the commitment to the dedicated fast bus line (rapid transit buses – BRT) from Campo Alegre, in Porto.
With a budget of 83 million euros, the work will be carried out and managed by Metro do Porto. A company to which this project was linked, in fact, but the idea was to invest in the metro, with a large part underground.
In the previous environmental impact study carried out in 2009, it was explained that this metro line crossed the western area, connecting the municipalities of Porto and Matosinhos by crossing “the parishes of Nevogilde, Foz do Douro, Lordelo do Ouro, Massarelos, Miragaia, Vitória and Sé, belonging to the municipality of Porto, and the parish of Matosinhos ”.
However, it remains to be seen exactly what will be the line that will now be made via BRT.
So the idea is to use European funds, available between 2021 and 2026, to help European countries recover from the crisis caused by the covid-19 pandemic, and allocate 299 million euros for the expansion of the metro network of Porto between Casa de Música and Devesas. This idea had already been defended by the Minister of the Environment, João Matos Fernandes, in April. At that time, in an interview with PUBLIC, the “possibility of a new metro line for Vila Nova de Gaia” was advancing, with a new bridge over the Duero River.
Lisbon receives 554 million euros
In Lisbon, the project with the right to receive the most funds will be the extension of the metro’s red line to Alcântara, something that the minister also mentioned in April. According to the document delivered in Brussels, 304 million euros will be channeled. In May 2017, when the idea of the circular line was officially presented, linking the Rat to Cais do Sodré, it was already thought of extending the red line but at a later stage, defending the company that the circular line had more return.
Approximately a year and a half later, the president of the Lisbon metro, Vítor Domingues dos Santos, told the PUBLIC that he was going to request authorization from the Government to begin the project to connect the Red Line from S. Sebastião to Campo de Ourique. in Amoreiras. Alcântara was only a hypothesis, because, explained the manager, from Campo de Ourique to Alcântara there is a very large gap. “We can’t go straight, although it seems like it’s going down a bit. We have to make a journey and that requires the construction of an intermediate station in Infante Santo ”, he said.
In addition, another 250 million euros are planned for the construction of the Odivelas-Loures light rail. As the PUBLIC has already reported, this transport line must be 12.4 kilometers long and have two arms, one between Odivelas station and Beatriz Ângelo Hospital and the other between Odivelas and Infantado.
In total, these four projects will be entitled to 936 million euros. So the idea is to still have 96 million for the decarbonization of public transport, which brings the total amount to 1032 million, as part of the European strategy to boost investment for the climate transition.
