A High-Speed-Rail Frontrunner Admits It Dropped the Coimbra Four-Track the Tender Required
The Lusolav consortium bidding on the Oiã–Taveiro stretch of the Porto–Lisbon high-speed line admits its design drops a four-track upgrade at Coimbra that the tender required, using a reversal manoeuvre instead — a compliance question over a contract worth an estimated €2.4 billion.
One of the front-running bidders to build a stretch of Portugal's flagship high-speed railway has acknowledged that its design does not deliver a track upgrade the tender explicitly required — a concession that opens a fresh compliance question over a contract worth an estimated €2.4 billion.
The Lusolav consortium, which groups Mota-Engil, Teixeira Duarte, Alves Ribeiro, Casais, Conduril and Gabriel Couto, confirmed to the Lusa news agency that its proposal for the Oiã–Taveiro stretch — running from Oliveira do Bairro down toward Coimbra — "does not follow the reference technical solution" set out in the project's preliminary study. It insists the change is within the rules; a rival bid, led by Spain's Sacyr with the Portuguese firms DST and Alberto Couto Alves, is competing for the same work.
What the tender asked for, and what was offered
At the centre of the dispute is a stretch of the existing Linha do Norte (Northern Line) between Taveiro and Coimbra-B station. A tender annex, according to Lusa, states that the concessionaire must deliver a "quadruple track between Taveiro and Coimbra" — four tracks, so high-speed and conventional services can run without getting in each other's way. Lusolav's design drops that quadruplication. Instead it brings the line into the station on a "Y" layout that would force southbound high-speed trains to run north as far as Adémia, above Coimbra-B, then reverse to enter the platforms.
The consortium argues its version is the more realistic one. It says the approach avoids roughly 45 building demolitions and saves €20 million to €30 million in works tied to the Metro do Mondego light-rail project, while conceding that trains would need a reversal stop of seven to eight minutes — against the four to five of a standard station call — to switch driving cabs. Lusolav frames the reference solution as carrying "very high" schedule risk: outstanding environmental sign-off (the RECAPE stage), numerous expropriations, difficult ground conditions and flood exposure, which it contends make the mandated 5.5-year deadline unachievable. Those risk and saving claims are the bidder's own, put to Lusa; the national rail manager, Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP), declined to comment while proposals are under evaluation.
Why it matters beyond the technical detail
The Oiã–Taveiro section is one piece of the Porto–Lisbon high-speed line, meant to cut the journey between the two cities to about 1 hour 15 minutes by 2032, with possible stops at Gaia, Aveiro, Coimbra and Leiria. A contract signature on this stretch is expected in 2027. Such a dispute — over whether a leading bid honours the tender's own specifications — is the kind of early wrinkle that can slow a project already racing tight deadlines. The roughly €2.4 billion valuation and 1h15 target come from earlier tender-launch reporting.
What This Means for Expats
- Timelines can still move: If you are weighing a home or business move around a promised 2032 high-speed link, treat that date as a target, not a guarantee — procurement fights are how slippage begins.
- Coimbra is a station to watch: Whether trains enter the city on a full four-track upgrade or a reversal manoeuvre will shape journey times for anyone along the central corridor.
- Cheaper is not always better: A bid that trims a required upgrade to save money can carry a long-term cost in capacity and reliability.
For now, IP must decide whether Lusolav's cost-saving redesign is a permissible interpretation of the tender or a departure from it — a ruling that will echo through the rest of the line. See our related coverage of the environmental clearance of the first Porto section, the race to supply the high-speed fleet, and the litigation reshaping Portugal's transport concessions. On the Portuguese industrial-investment tape, our report on SRAM breaking ground on a third Coimbra factory, a 57.5 million euro project carrying 527 contracted jobs and 16.9 million euros of state support, due to open in the middle of 2028 sets the latest reference. On the mechanics of taking a Portuguese public body to court, our guide to the providência cautelar, the urgent administrative injunction that carries a 48-hour first order, an automatic freeze on executing a suspended act, and a 306 euro court fee sets the latest reference.
