The state's intention to buy new trains for CP is not new, but now the details of the amounts involved and the expected timings are known. There will be 117 electric cars, 50 of which will be for the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. They will arrive between 2026 and 2029.
According to Dinheiro Vivoof the 50 electric trains for urban and suburban services in the Lisbon region, 34 will replace the 29 units on the Cascais Line that are more than 50 years old. The remaining 16 will reinforce services on the Sintra, Azambuja and Sado lines. The other cars in the batch of 117 will be used for urban services in Porto (12) and regional services (55). The total planned investment is 819 million euros.
The new trains are still a long way off. Pedro Nuno Santos, Minister for Infrastructure and Housing, announced this Thursday, July 15, that the government has authorized CP to buy the new electric units, but the process is still in its infancy. The public tender has yet to be launched in order to select the winner and award the contract, but Pedro Nuno Santos assures us that the specifications are already ready. "The award to the winner will be at the end of 2022 and we will have to wait three to four years before the first train is delivered"the minister told reporters.
Forecasts point to a delivery rate of three coaches per month from 2026; the first will serve the Cascais Line, which is in the process of being modernized by Infraestruturas de Portugal. CP should have all its trains by 2029. This renewal of the national rail fleet will be financed through the European instrument Multiannual Financial Framework.
The government wants these trains to be partly manufactured in Portugal by the company that wins the tender and sets up a production unit in the country. To train professionals with skills in the area, Portugal wants to develop a skills center with a school dedicated to railroads, as Dinheiro Vivo writes.
