
Connecting the Cascais Line to the Cintura Line, through a new underground railway station in Alcântara, is a project which has been talked about for several years, with the current mayor of Lisbon, Fernando Medina, advocating in several public speeches this project, which would connect the country's only isolated railway line to the network. But the idea has been put on the back burner because "meanwhile, the world moves on and opinions change"Medina commented on public meeting of the Chamber of Deputies this Wednesday.
"This is one of those projects that, decade after decade, reappears in the top pile or falls in the pile of successive governments and successive administrations of Infraestruturas de Portugal".he added. "The Lisbon City Hall, during the time of my predecessor, President António Costa, made a great effort to make this project viable. There is, in fact, a project with a declaration of environmental impact issued and a great deal of work was even done on integration of the railroad service line to the Port into the Belt Line.“ The Belt Line currently connects the stations of Alcântara-Terra, where it allows passengers from the Cascais Line to be received through an indirect connection, and Lisbon-East, where it meets the North Line, crossing along the way the Sintra Line at Campolide or Sete Rios station, or the South Line at Entrecampos.
The connection of the Cascais Line to the Belt Line would allow passengers traveling from Oeiras or Cascais to easily access the city's northern work zones, through the existing stations at Sete Rios, Entrecampos or Roma-Areeiro, without having to pass through the Lisbon Metro's Green Line and then switch to the Yellow or Blue Line - which would relieve the pressure currently felt at Cais do Sodré station. However, as Medina explained, "the world has advanced in different directions" and one of them was the ongoing project to build the Lisbon Metro's circular line which "resolves part of the central issue of the integration of the Cascais Line into the Beltwaywhich is fast arrival to the central and northern part of Lisbon without or with a transfer"..
In parallel, work is underway on the Extension of the Red Line from São Sebastião to Campolide, with a station near Amoreiras, Campo de Ourique, Infante Santo and finally Alcântara, and with integration either to the future surface subway that will connect to Odivelasor to the streetcar 15 that already circulates in Lisbon. LIOS project. These new investments take "centrality" to the integration of the Cascais Line into the Belt Line, said Medina, who is currently unable "defend it as a priority project". "To put it another way, since the project costs 250 million euros, there are other priorities to do with the 250 million euros than to do that integration."
The Mayor of Lisbon also admits that the municipality now has a different understanding of this work than in the past, stating that it contains in itself a "contradiction" - would be "very difficult not to say almost impossible" integrate the two railway lines without reducing the frequency of trains in circulation or interrupting the connection to Cais do Sodrésince "would require increasing the rolling stock that exists today or doubling it". “It would not be a realistic project"the mayor concluded, in response at the same meeting to Gonçalo Matos (Vizinhos de Belém).
"Why is it still listed in the National Investment Plan? It's a good question. Those who have been at this for many years understand that it's the going up and the going down in the pile. And so every now and then it feels like going up and other times like going down, and the project never dies. It's becoming like the airport."commented Fernando Medina.
The priority now is to bury the Cascais Line, "an old ambition". "From the moment it is stabilized that its route is the one that exists and that there will be no integration into the Belt Line, there is no reason not to address the urban problem that is the city being cut off from access to the river"Medina said, adding that "the level crossings that existed have been closed over the decades" and that there are temporary crossings "there is too much time and they need decisions from each side". Medina announced that it is now possible "a whole other reflection on the western waterfront" and that, soon, the Chamber will speak publicly on this subject.