Wednesday, 7 October, saw the announcement of the approval of a signed protocol between the Portuguese municipalities of Loures and Odivelas, with the aim of constructing a light rail line linking the two. This concerns the creation of a line with a total length of 12 kilometres and an estimated budget of 250 million euros. The money also includes the purchasing of the trains.
The project is part of the Recovery and Resilience Plan launched by the National Government
The project proposal was unanimously approved at the Loures City Council meeting with the message that the interests of the municipalities of Loures and Odivelas (satellite cities within the larger Lisbon metropolis) were met “in ensuring a quick connection between the two population centres, putting in use the equipment and the Odivelas station of the Metropolitano de Lisboa, in order to improve the connectivity of their territories”.
The addition of the new connections is expected to drastically improve the capacity of the public transit in the area, previously deemed insufficient.
As for the exact placement of stations, the Mayor of Loures, Bernardino Soares, explained that this is still under a process of detailed study. In his view, the best-suited type of transport would be similar to the one used in Porto – that is, light rail, which has the capacity to carry about 720 people per composition.
The mayor also welcomed the fact that this project is seen as a priority by the Lisbon Metropolitan Area and the Government and that it shows promising financing perspective. “We have added guarantees that this work can take place and not in an overly long period,” said Mr Soares, recalling that the Recovery and Resilience Plan counts with an execution deadline until 2026.
Back in July, the Municipality of Loures had already announced the creation of another light rail line, which will link Santa Apolónia to Moscavide, Portela and Sacavém. This project has an estimated length of about 14 kilometres and will be funded from the next municipal budget.
Source: TheMayor.EU
