The Mayor of Oporto, Rui Moreira, defended today that a Porto-Madrid railway line via Trás-os-Montes “just for the goods part would be worth it”, but expressed more reservations about the transport of passengers.
“Thinking about a development strategy, connecting with the port of Leixões, connecting with what are the industrial centers, just for the goods part, it would be worth it”, said today Rui Moreira on the sidelines of the conference “The Porto/Madrid High Speed Line – via Trás-os-Montes and Castela e Leão”, held today in the Porto City Hall.
In this conference was presented the study of the Vale d’Ouro Association that suggests a connection of little more than two hours between Porto and Madrid via Trás-os-Montes, with a connection in Spain through Zamora, which can also be an alternative in the connection Lisbon – Madrid.
Rui Moreira pointed out that this connection, on the Spanish side, does not require “major investment”, since there is already a high speed station in Zamora, with a connection to Madrid.
However, the independent mayor of Porto stated that “the question is posed differently”, even though it is “important that Porto and Madrid be connected quickly”, a two and a half hour connection being “highly competitive” at a time when it is necessary to “reduce dependence on air transport”.
“Now, all this goes through a huge territory, a low density territory in which we have little population. From a strategic point of view, this only makes sense, as I said, if other political-economic measures make these cities grow,” Rui Moreira pointed out.
The mayor of Porto foresees that if these measures are not taken, “what happened with the Marão Tunnel” will happen to the railroad.
“The Marão Tunnel, which we hoped would give a new life to what are the regions beyond Marão, ended up draining”, because “there are more people coming here with their skills than people going from here to there”, he pointed out.
Rui Moreira also considered “unfeasible” the hypothesis of a Lisbon-Madrid connection through Oporto and Trás-os-Montes, as already suggested by the Vale D’Ouro Association, adding that he doesn’t believe that “the Lisbon – Madrid connection will be around five hours” in other routes.
