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Infrastructure

The long underground concourse at Cais do Sodre metro station in Lisbon, with parallel moving walkways, a lit ceiling strip and Saida signs for Avenida 24 de Julho and Praca Duque de Terceira

Escalators at Cais do Sodré Have Been Broken for 2,500 Days Because Two State Companies Cannot Agree Who Owns Them

Metro figures cover 234 escalators, 133 lifts and 10 travelators across 46 stations. February 2026 was the worst month yet, with 38 lifts and 40 escalators stopped at once. One set at Cais do Sodré has not moved since 2019, stranded by a dispute with Infraestruturas de Portugal.

The Portugal Brief 24 Aug 2026

A Comboios de Portugal train at the platform of Coimbra station on the Northern Line

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.

The Portugal Brief 14 Aug 2026

A red Takargo container freight train crosses a viaduct through a Portuguese city under a grey sky, illustrating the rail-freight focus of the planned Grandola logistics park

The Environment Agency Approves a €468 Million Logistics and Rail-Freight Park in Grândola, With Works Planned for 2027

The Portuguese Environment Agency has issued a favourable, conditional environmental ruling for the Grândola Logistics Park, a 130-hectare, €468 million freight complex with a rail terminal linked to the Southern Line. The promoter, Qantara Capital, aims to license in 2027 and build over two years.

The Portugal Brief 12 Aug 2026

Foreign Nationals Keep Greater Lisbon's Buses Rolling, Filling 57% of the Cab at One Operator

Foreign Nationals Keep Greater Lisbon's Buses Rolling, Filling 57% of the Cab at One Operator

The buses that thread through Greater Lisbon are increasingly driven by people who were not born in Portugal. Figures from the operators that run Carris Metropolitana (the Greater Lisbon regional bus network) show foreign nationals now make up...

The Portugal Brief 01 Aug 2026

Four Train-Makers Line Up for Portugal's €584 Million High-Speed Fleet Built to Run at 300 km/h

Four Train-Makers Line Up for Portugal's €584 Million High-Speed Fleet Built to Run at 300 km/h

Portugal's high-speed rail ambition has moved from track-laying to train-buying. CP (Comboios de Portugal — Portugal's state railway operator) has opened a tender worth up to €584 million for the fleet that will eventually run on the...

The Portugal Brief 01 Aug 2026

A modern motorway viaduct crossing a green valley in Portugal

Portugal Enters the Final Month of Its €22 Billion Recovery Plan With Completion 'Increasingly Possible'

With one month to the EU deadline, Portugal is racing to lock in its roughly €22 billion Recovery and Resilience Plan. A seventh reprogramming and a looser definition of 'substantial completion' make finishing without losing funds 'increasingly possible' — but roads and care homes are still at risk.

The Portugal Brief 31 Jul 2026

The interior of a Lisbon Metro station with its distinctive yellow patterned azulejo tiles and a stairway handrail

A Burst Water Main Floods a Tunnel and Empties the Lisbon Metro's Red Line onto the Tracks

A water pipe burst near Encarnação station at around 5.20pm on 28 July, flooding a Red Line tunnel and stranding a train. After a passenger forced a door and walked onto the tracks, the Metro cut power to the whole line. No injuries were reported; EPAL was to repair the pipe that evening.

The Portugal Brief 29 Jul 2026

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