The Minho Line was under construction between January 2017 and May this year. Replacing diesel trains with electric ones, introducing electronic signaling and standardizing platforms were the main objectives of the €83.2 million investment by Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP), two-thirds of which came from European funds. However, more than six years later, the results leave much to be desired for the passenger and freight companies, which would be the biggest beneficiaries of this venture.
A tour between Porto and Valença confirms the complaints from both sides. In 2015, the fastest train between the two cities took two hours; The journey currently takes 11 minutes shorter, due to the switch from diesel to electric trains. On the same route, the Celta train, which is still made with diesel equipment, will take only two minutes less time in 2023 than before the works. Government investment has not accelerated travel and has penalized CP, which puts trains on IP-managed tracks.
An example of this is the stops at Afife, Âncora-Praia and Moledo do Minho, where the locomotive 2600 and the three associated carriages do not fit completely on the 80 meter long platform. In Barroselas, only the first 80 meters of the platform are at train height; in the rest of this station a ladder is practically necessary to get on board.
Normally, the situation forces passengers to switch trains to get off at these locations and the driver must slow the train with the precision worthy of a Swiss watch to align with the platform. It accelerates the wear of the material and boarding and disembarking passengers takes longer in this situation. On special occasions, when there are more carriages, the train must stop twice at the same place. That happened in August, during the Festa da Senhora da Agonia.
CP is aware of the situation and claims that it has “informed the infrastructure manager [IP]before the opening of the line, on the characteristics necessary for the safe and efficient execution of the operation,” an official source tells Dinheiro Vivo. The situation could be resolved with the installation of temporary platforms, as happened in Areia- Darque, in 2012, after work on the Lima River.
The IP works also put an end to the telephone canton system. With electronic signaling it is no longer necessary to call the station master to let the train move on to the next canton. However, the system penalizes train service: the signaling system has no sliding roof, meaning trains approach stations at 15 mph instead of much higher speeds. The result: there is more wear and tear on the rolling stock and travel times become worse.
There are other peculiarities: in Vila Nova de Cerveira the signal is directly in front of the platform and is only seen by the driver if one of the carriages is outside the platform – on Friday the Intercidades train has five carriages and various external compositions are ; in Barroselas the driver leaves the station in a downward direction without knowing whether he has permission, because the track sign is placed more than 600 meters further on in a bend. The train has already reached a speed of 70 km/hour and is in danger of suddenly having to stop. At the old Lanhelas and Vila Praia de Âncora stations it can be seen that the catenary poles were placed in a place where a 400-metre line could be built, allowing another crossing for passenger trains.
The accumulation of these microsituations affects the punctuality of the service and complicates the lives of users who only use the Minho line or depend on it for other CP services from the Nine, Ermesinde and Porto-Campanhã stations. IP refused to provide clarification to Dinheiro Vivo after a month of insistence.
Goods await further work
In addition to serving passengers, the work on the Minho line more than tripled the capacity of the freight service, from 15 trains with a length of 300 meters to 20 trains with a length of 750 meters. However, the reality is far from the prediction: “It has not yet been possible to increase the length of trains or the number of daily circulations”, regrets the executive director of the Portuguese Association of Railway Companies (APEF), which represents Medway and Captain / Takargo.
Miguel Rebelo de Sousa gives an example: Valença station “does not allow receiving and sending trains of 750 meters”, so international train changes “are limited to trains of 300 meters”. To change the scenario it will be necessary to use dual-voltage locomotives between Portugal and Spain, a “scarce resource at that time”. Alternatively, Carvalha station has “only two backup lines”, which will be “less functional to support a significant increase in the number of trains”.
The improvement of services also depends on increasing the loading capacity, from 6.4 to 8 tons per meter, of the Eiffel Bridge in Viana do Castelo. On the centuries-old crossing, the speed limit is 20 km/h, allowing the lamprey fishermen to wave. The increase in the number of freight trains also depends on the lifting of the 520 meter restriction between the Campanhã and Nine stations, argues Miguel Rebelo de Sousa.
123 million to Porto-Vigo in less than two hours
The work on the Minho line has also not improved travel times between Porto and Vigo. By train, the two cities are still two hours and 22 minutes apart, just as they were before the line was modernized. However, a 2018 IP study shows that with 123 million euros it would be possible to connect Porto to Vigo in one hour and 47 minutes. With 200 km/h sections and double track between Nine and Viana do Castelo, the train would be faster than the bus and have a time close to that of the car, allowing more passengers to be transported along the Atlantic Axis in a more sustainable way.
The same investment would place the city of Invicta 58 minutes from Viana do Castelo, which would open the door to expanding suburban services to this city; from Porto to Valença the journey time would drop to one hour and 22 minutes – the equivalent of the current time between Porto and Viana.
However, Linha do Minho will be excluded from new investments in the coming years. By 2030, the priority for this region is to build a new line between Braga and Valença, without stops, for 1.25 billion euros and the town of Porto one hour and 25 minutes from Vigo. The budget is 10 times higher to gain 22 minutes.
At the same time, the tunnel connection between the current Porto-Campanhã station and Sá Carneiro airport will be built, costing 450 million euros, together with the new high-speed connection between Lisbon and Porto. At the same time, the section of the Minho line between Contumil and Ermesinde will also be doubled, from two to four lanes, for 120 million euros. After 2030, the government plans to build the rail link between Sá Carneiro airport and Nine station, which will cost 350 million euros.
If we add the new sections with the quadrupling of Contumil-Ermesinde and the duplication between Nine and Viana, the total budget would be just over one billion euros. The costs are lower than those of the new route between Braga and Valença and multiply the economic and territorial impacts throughout the Minho region.
Source: DN
