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The Intercities that currently connects Santa Apolónia with Viana do Castelo, at a distance of 417 kilometers, is already the second longest train journey in Portugal. But its extension to Valença, in the first quarter of 2021, will increase the route to 446 kilometers. A value that, however, is far from the 632 kilometers of the longest train journey in Portugal, made daily by the Alfa Pendular between Porto and Faro.
The arrival of Intercities to the border with Galicia will only be possible after the electrification of the Viana do Castelo – Valença section, whose works are expected to be completed by the end of this year. In the first months of 2021, the phase of tests, certifications and training trips for machinists continues, so that in March all trains can operate with electric traction on that line.
At that time, Minho’s railway geography will change radically. To replace the diesel cars that CP has rented from Renfe, the first Arco coaches purchased in Spain will be released, towed by 2600 series locomotives that were supported by Entroncamento and which the public transport company decided to recover last year.
According to an official CP source, the first three wagons will be ready to run by the end of January and three more are expected by the end of March.
The company also says that only 36 of the 50 Spanish wagons contained asbestos, and the disposal of that product was completed earlier this week, ahead of schedule, which was the first week of December.
At this time, repairs, interior remodeling and painting are underway, and the 36 Arch should be fully available by the end of 2022.
To tow these wagons, CP says that “of the seven locomotives [série 2600] necessary for the operation on the Minho Line, four are ready and three are in the final recovery stage, and they are already being used for material handling and test runs ”. As for the remaining 14 locomotives that still need to be rehabilitated, five are expected to leave the shop per year in 2020 and 2021 and four in 2023.
The “new” locomotives and coaches, when they leave the Guifões and Contumil workshops, will be assigned to various lines in the country as the Ferrovia 2020 investment program is completed and more railways are electrified.
In Miño, only the Celta train, between Oporto and Vigo, will continue to be manufactured with diesel material.
As for the number of circulations between Porto and Valença, it will not change, hoping that the company will maintain basically the same frequency of regional and interregional trains between the two cities.
Regarding the reduction in travel time that electrification will provide, the company’s official source says that “CP awaits information from IP on operating conditions, that is, the optimization of travel times, following the works still in progress “.
However, these times should not be much shorter. For two reasons: the modernization did not foresee interventions on the route in order to increase the speed of the trains and neither did it include the installation of electronic signaling.
This means that the exploration will continue to be carried out by telephone call, in which the station manager requests by telephone from the next station the authorization for the train to advance, delaying the crossing because it is totally dependent on human resources.
The longest train trips in Portugal
The Alfa Pendular, which runs 632 kilometers between Porto and Faro, is the train that makes the longest route on Portuguese rails. It is followed by the Intercities between Lisbon and Viana do Castelo (417 kilometers) and its counterpart that connects Santa Apolónia with Guimarães (391 kilometers) and which is practically linked to the connections from Lisbon to Braga (389 kilometers) and Guarda (387 kilometers). kilometres).
The trains that connect Lisbon with Oporto run 336 kilometers, followed by the Alfas and Intercursos do Oriente to Faro, which run 302 kilometers, practically the same as the Interdades to Covilhã.
The Intercity with the shortest route is Évora, which is 148 kilometers from Oriente station. But there is an Interregional that takes a longer route: Porto – Pocinho, on the Duero line, which covers 175 kilometers.
In the regional service there is a discreet diesel car (the oldest in the CP fleet) that connects Entroncamento with Badajoz daily for 175 kilometers.
At the opposite extreme, the shortest commercial passenger train journey in Portugal is the one connecting Coimbra B with Coimbra A. These trains cover 1.7 kilometers and should end when the “old station” is disrupted under the Metrobus project. When this happens, the trains with the shortest route on the Portuguese rails will be those that run between Oeiras and Cais do Sodré (16 kilometers) and the regional ones between Lagos and Portimão (17 kilometers).
