Travelling by train between the capitals of Spain and Portugal should take no more than five hours by the end of the decade – and just three hours by 2034 – according to plans unveiled by the European Commission on Thursday.
The goal is set out in a planning document adopted by the EU executive, which outlines a timeline and priority actions to finally link Lisbon and Madrid by high-speed train. The 600-kilometre journey currently takes almost nine hours or more and requires at least two train changes.
“Such links make train travel a genuinely attractive and sustainable alternative for city-to-city journeys,” Apostolos Tzitzikōstas, the EU’s transport commissioner, said in a statement.
The Lisbon-Madrid route is the “main missing link” of what the EU calls its ‘Atlantic Corridor’, designed to offer fast connections between the Iberian Peninsula and major cities in France and Germany.
The project, which has already received nearly €1 billion in EU funding, is part of the bloc’s wider push to shift travellers from planes to trains.
Currently, Lisbon and Madrid are connected by about 40 flights a day, said François Bausch, the European coordinator for the Atlantic Corridor. “This project isn’t just about saving time; it’s about cutting emissions and making sustainable mobility a reality in Europe,” he added.
The Commission is due to publish next Tuesday, 4 November, an overarching European plan for an integrated high-speed rail network, alongside a new EU sustainable transport investment strategy.
(rh, aw)
