Portugal’s first high-speed line has moved from planning to construction, with work starting on the 71 km Porto–Oiã section of the future Porto–Lisbon route.
Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP) and concessionaire AVAN have begun work on the first section of the future Porto–Lisbon high-speed line, which will link Porto-Campanhã and Oiã, near Aveiro.
The contract, known as PPP1, covers around 71 km of new electrified double track on a dedicated alignment, designed for speeds of up to 300 km/h.
The start of works marks the project’s transition to the construction phase. The concession was signed on 29 July 2025 with AVAN Norte, a company formed by the Portuguese consortium LusoLav, and runs for 30 years: the first five for design, expropriations, construction and certification, and the following 25 for maintenance, upkeep and availability of the infrastructure.
A 71 km section
The first section will run between Porto-Campanhã station and Oiã, in the municipality of Oliveira do Bairro. It will include an approximately 8.3 km connection with the Linha do Norte in the Canelas area, providing access to the existing Aveiro station, which IP will adapt for high-speed services.
The works include around 8 km of tunnels and 19 km of bridges and viaducts, among them a new road-rail crossing over the River Douro. They also include the adaptation of Campanhã for high-speed operation and the construction of a new underground station at Santo Ovídio, in Vila Nova de Gaia.
The new Santo Ovídio station will connect with lines H and D of the Porto Metro and with the future bus terminal. At Campanhã, the infrastructure will link with the Linha do Norte and Linha do Minho, with five metro lines (A, B, C, E and F) and the intermodal terminal, reinforcing the station’s role as northern Portugal’s principal interchange.
Funding and timetable
The project is being delivered through a 30-year public-private concession. Funding includes €875 million from the European Investment Bank and €480 million from the European Union’s Connecting Europe Facility, according to figures published by the Portuguese Government and IP.
Completion of the Porto–Oiã section is scheduled for 2030, although potential delays must be taken into account. IP expects the following sections, from Oiã to Soure and from Soure to Carregado, to be completed in 2032, allowing the complete line to link Porto and Lisbon in around one hour and 15 minutes, compared with the current journey time of approximately two hours and 48 minutes.
Impact on the rail network
Beyond shorter journey times, the new line has a structural objective: to move faster long-distance services onto a dedicated corridor and release capacity on the saturated Linha do Norte. That capacity can then be allocated to regional, suburban and freight services.
The project forms part of the Trans-European Transport Network and Portugal’s National Investment Programme 2030. The future high-speed network will retain links with the Linha do Norte to serve Aveiro and Coimbra, and with the Linha do Oeste to serve Leiria, extending the corridor’s benefits beyond stations located directly on the new alignment.
At the construction launch ceremony, IP chief executive Paulo Carmona stressed that the project represents a strategic investment in the country’s competitiveness, territorial cohesion and environmental sustainability. AVAN representative Carlos Mota Santos, meanwhile, highlighted that the consortium is made up entirely of Portuguese companies.
With work now under way between Campanhã and Oiã, high-speed rail in Portugal has ceased to be a planning-stage project and is beginning to take shape on the ground.