Lisbon to Porto High-Speed Rail: IP Weighs Splitting the 130-Kilometre Soure to Carregado Stretch Into Two PPPs, With the Tender Due by Year End

Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP), the state company that manages the country's railways and main roads, is weighing whether to put the third stretch of the Lisbon to Porto high-speed line out to tender as two separate public-private partnerships rather than one, Jornal de Negócios reported on Thursday. The stretch runs from Soure, south of Coimbra, to Carregado in the municipality of Alenquer. IP has not announced a decision.

As a single contract, the section would be about 130 kilometres long, with a base price in the region of 3 billion euros, according to the paper. Splitting it would, in Negócios's account, bring more bidders into the contest and increase the share that the European Investment Bank (EIB) could finance.

Why the third section grew

The project is being built in three PPPs, an arrangement in which a private concessionaire designs, builds, finances and maintains the line and the state pays it over the following decades. The Council of Ministers set out the structure in Resolution n.º 8/2026 of 19 January: PPP1 from Porto (Campanhã) to Oiã, PPP2 from Oiã to Soure, and PPP3 from Soure to Carregado.

The first PPP2 tender failed. The resolution records that it drew a single bid, which the jury excluded for not meeting the contract's terms. IP relaunched the tender on 23 January 2026, according to IP's own project page, and the new version ends at Taveiro, 11 kilometres short of Soure. Negócios reported in March that the missing kilometres pushed the third section to 132 kilometres.

The same resolution shows what a contract of this kind costs the state. It authorises spending of up to 1.6 billion euros in net present value (at December 2023 prices) for PPP2, or an estimated 4.77 billion euros in current prices, paid over 30 years.

Where the timetable stands

IP's project page says the following:

• the PPP1 contract, for Porto to Oiã, was signed on 29 July 2025;
• it expects to award the relaunched PPP2 before the end of 2026 and to sign the contract in the first half of 2027;
• the PPP3 tender is planned for the second half of 2026, and the Portuguese Environment Agency has already issued a favourable environmental impact statement for the route, subject to conditions;
• Oiã to Soure should be finished in 2032 and Soure to Carregado in 2033.

On financing, IP says the EIB has pre-approved a credit line of 3 billion euros for the first phase (Porto to Soure). About half of it is meant to finance the two concessions on that phase directly, and 875 million euros has already gone to AVAN Norte, the PPP1 concessionaire. The EU's Connecting Europe Facility has granted about 813 million euros, also for the first phase. IP does not say how the Soure to Carregado stretch will be financed.

What it means for passengers

The third section takes the line south from Coimbra past Leiria towards Lisbon, so it determines when the full journey time savings arrive. Once it is finished, IP expects a non-stop train from Porto Campanhã to Lisboa Oriente to take 1 hour 19 minutes. A service stopping at Gaia, Aveiro, Coimbra and Leiria would take 1 hour 45 minutes.

A final link from Carregado into Lisbon will come later. Until then, high-speed trains will reach the capital on the existing Linha do Norte, which IP plans to widen to four tracks between Alverca and Azambuja.

At the northern end, AVAN Norte was due to start work on the Porto to Oiã section on 12 October, while Gaia council continues to contest its station site.