High-speed rail in Portugal

Common card · No. 466102

Since the 1990s, Portugal features a network of high-speed trains, which however run mainly on conventional railways as of 2026, with some sections of infrastructure upgraded over the decades. These high-speed services are the so-called Alfa Pendular services, with top speeds of 220 km/h (135 mph), and they connect much of Portugal. Plans have been made for dedicated high-speed railways both within Portugal and to connect to Spain, but these have been cancelled and revived multiple times, and as of 2026 only some parts have been finished. The most ambitious plans appeared in October 2020, when the Portuguese government proposed a 75 minute rail link between the cities of Lisbon and Porto and a 55 minute rail link between Porto and Vigo (Spain). These new links will connect with the current railway system in Leiria, Coimbra, Aveiro and Braga (besides the already mentioned cities), diminishing travel times overall in the country.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Nuno Morão, CC BY-SA 2.0