The train journey between Lisbon and Porto has changed little since 2007, despite the speeches to ditch the car. For 15 years, there have been 18 trips per day and per direction between the two Portuguese cities. It is along the centuries-old Northern Line that the Alfa Pendular and Intercidades follow, mixed with regional and suburban services and even freight wagons. Due to track work, journeys now take longer than in 2007. On the contrary: the bus has become faster and has surpassed the train in terms of the number of seats.
“The limitations of the Northern Line are widely recognized,” an official CP source told DN/Dinheiro Vivo. An average of 730 trains per day run on the country’s main railway line, with greater restrictions on arrival in Porto and Lisbon (see infographic). It is not due to a lack of demand that the state-owned company CP does not increase the number of connections, especially since the daily occupancy rate “consistently remains above 70%” and on Fridays “close to the total” capacity, details the same source.
For more than three decades, the political power has assumed that there will no longer be any trains running on this route, completed in 1864 (in Vila Nova de Gaia) and whose usage level is around 90%, according to 2019 data from the Mobility and Transport Authority. (AMT). “It is extremely complicated to run trains at a speed of 200 km/h when there is a mix of different types of services,” emphasizes Manuel Tão, researcher in Transport Economics at the University of Algarve. At most, “it may be possible to operate another five or ten trains per day”, although it is “unthinkable to bet on a timetable”, that is, with constant departures every one or two hours, for example.
The last change in train traffic between Lisbon and Porto took place on April 22, 2007. From then on, CP increased daily connections per direction on this route from 15 to 18, with 11 services operated by the top of the range Alfa Pendular and the remaining seven by the Intercidades locomotive and carriages.
At the time, the first government of José Sócrates was determined to rail the new Lisbon-Porto high-speed line, leaving the Northern Line behind: from 2006 onwards the aim was to modernize the rails so that at most trains could circulate. , at 160 km/h. Also in 2007, the best travel time between Santa Apolónia station (Lisbon) and Campanhã (Porto) was 2 hours and 44 minutes with the Alfa Pendular, and 3 hours and 9 minutes with the Intercidades.
In 2013, when the Passos Coelho government halted the high-speed project, CP managed to add an additional train between Lisbon and Porto on Friday late afternoons; in the opposite direction, the extra journey entered the track on Sunday in the late afternoon. There are now 18 services/day/direction plus the extra on Friday (or Sunday depending on management).
Nothing else changed until July 31, 2020 (with the exception of Covid-19 pandemic restrictions). When the Alfa Pendular collided with a road maintenance vehicle in Soure, the impact was so great that CP irrevocably no longer had one of the 10 train wagons for the top service. There was never another Alfa Pendular to Guimarães and suddenly it was back to 2007: 17 trips per day and per direction plus a weekend boost.
Buses have more seats
In 2023, the train journey between Lisbon-Santa Apolónia and Porto-Campanhã will take 2 hours and 59 minutes with Alfa Pendular and 3 hours and 24 minutes with Intercidades. The Alfa has a capacity of 301 passengers per train and the Intercidades can accommodate an average of 438 travelers – in the configuration of two first class carriages and four other second class carriages. In total there are 6514 places per day and per direction, Dinheiro Vivo estimates.
While the train set its pace, the bus has accelerated its offering in recent years. By using the highways built with European funds, road connections between Lisbon and Porto are faster than ever. Between Lisbon-Oriente and Porto-Campanhã it takes 3 hours and 15 minutes to travel, either by the Intercidades train or by an Expresso bus, which runs between Gare do Oriente and the Campanhã Intermodal Terminal – both infrastructures are next to the line of the train .
CP states that “the train offers clear advantages in terms of safety, comfort, speed and sustainability”, in addition to being more practical for going to the toilet or feeding your stomach during the more than three-hour journey, thanks to the shuttle service Pub . On the other hand, the buses rely on more modern amenities, such as power sockets everywhere (a rarity in the Intercidades service) and wireless internet – taking advantage of the proximity to transmission towers, far from the railway line.
Although traveling by train is more environmentally friendly compared to the bus (see infographic), price is a decisive factor when choosing the bus, especially if you are over 30 years old; there are no more discounts. To travel between Lisbon and Porto on September 15, the cheapest Intercidades trip last Tuesday cost 25.25 euros and the Alfa Pendular trip cost 31.90 euros – you only pay less if you buy the tickets more than a week in advance. With the bus, depending on the time, you could still buy tickets for between 7 and 20 euros.
As a result, Rede Expressos, FlixBus and Gypsy offer a total of 6608 places between Lisbon and Porto, spread over 128 trips in each direction, with departures between 6am and 11pm: 74 connections for the Expressos network, 52 for FlixBus and 4 for Gypsy. To Dinheiro Vivo, Rede Expressos (owned by the Barraqueiro group) points to a “48% growth in supply” of Lisbon-Porto buses compared to 2019 and even states: “On busier days we reinforce the most popular services and timetables” .
FlixBus has increased its offering on the Lisbon-Porto axis by more than 70% compared to 2022. “Since the beginning of this year, there has been exponential growth in the travel and tourism sector in Portugal, and this is obviously reflected in demand and supply on the domestic market. Factors such as inflation and loss of purchasing power have also contributed to the fact that traveling by bus is no longer option B, but has become option A,” explains the company’s general manager for Portugal to Dinheiro Vivo and Spain, Pablo Pastega. The German company says it will “increase the range” of road partners “in accordance with market needs”. Transport companies normally use 50-seat vehicles, because 70-seat units already have three axles and will pay class 3 tolls – the cost increase is 11% per trip, according to FlixBus.
The train still has to make a long journey to separate from the bus. Without the new Lisbon-Porto line, no major long-term improvements are expected on the Northern line until the end of the decade. Once the work is completed, travel time should return to 2007 levels. This is why, “taking into account that annual payments associated with public-private road partnerships will fall sharply this decade, the national debt will be under control is that investments in transport infrastructure are below the European average and that the transport sector is increasing its emissions instead of consistently reducing them, it would be incomprehensible if the investments in rail infrastructure planned by 2030 did not take place,” summarizes he Pedro Nunes, government policy analyst and project coordinator in the field of energy, climate and mobility at environmental association Zero.
Source: DN
