Galicia and Porto railway link looks ever more likely

This became clear after a statement by Porto mayor

The Mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira, announced on 10 May that the Portuguese Government has already reached an agreement “on the methodology” for the construction of the new rail link between the North Region of Portugal and Galicia. The realization of this long-awaited transport connection might still take ten years to complete, however. The information was provided during the second edition of the “Dialogues Gallaecia” forum, which was hosted by the Portuguese city and which also counted with the participation of the president of the Regional Government of Galicia, Alberto Núñez Feijóo.

Boosting up sustainable connectivity in the Atlantic seaboard

As we have previously reported, the extension of the Atlantic transport corridor in a way that also serves Galicia, located in the far northwestern corner of the Iberian Peninsula is deemed of essential importance by the regional authorities. Failing to provide such robust transborder connections in a way dooms the region to economic isolation despite its maritime significance.

The main obstacle that lied for so long in the way of creating a transborder railway connection was the different rail track gauge between the two countries. And supposedly, this point of contention has been overcome.

“There is already agreement on the methodology, because one of the questions that was raised, and which could not be resolved, was whether it should be an Iberian gauge or a European gauge. The information I have is that there is a determination to maintain an Iberian gauge”, explained Rui Moreira in the debate that took place at the Municipal Theater of Porto – Rivoli.

The mayor of Porto also clarified that the Iberian gauge is advantageous because it permits shorter trips to be made. In his words: “If this was made in the European gauge, it would only allow point to point movement, over long distances. When making Iberian gauge we have the possibility of doing combined services (…), taking advantage of all the capillarity of the Spanish railway that is much more advanced than ours”.

Both leaders agreed and predicted from their experience that such public works initiative would likely take a decade to complete.