The Odemira fire had two fronts overnight and was still active at dawn, with RTP reporting it had reached São Marcos da Serra in Silves. A fire in Ourique shut the railway to the Algarve for more than five hours.
The state rail and road manager's consolidated half-year accounts put network punctuality at 70 percent against an 85 percent target, and say no improvement is foreseen for the rest of the year. Train-kilometres fell 3 percent and thirteen significant accidents were logged.
The Infraestruturas de Portugal study sent to Brussels concludes that migrating the national network to European gauge will hardly be justifiable. Spain reached the same conclusion in July, and Spain is the country whose decision settles Portugal's.
A decree-law published in Wednesday's gazette bans new level crossings outright, sets measured thresholds for closing the ones that remain, and writes a civil liability chapter that defines when the infrastructure manager is at fault. It starts on 1 March 2027.
AVAN Norte's operations chief told about 150 people in Aveiro that bridge site compounds go up this month and excavation starts in October. The company's own website still describes the Porto to Oiã line as being in environmental conformity verification, and 500 parcels are affected.
Infraestruturas de Portugal began dynamic testing this month, but the Ministry of Infrastructure has told parliament that thefts of catenary, signalling and telecoms equipment are hitting the certification schedule. Accredited certifiers are also scarce.
CP is testing Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet on one Alfa Pendular trainset to fix patchy on-board Wi-Fi where the mobile network is weak. The €30,000 pilot runs four to six months, and the government has defended picking Starlink for its technological maturity.
