International South Corridor brings Sines closer to Europe

With 80 km of new lines and 90 km of requalified lines, the International South Corridor will connect the Port of Sines, Lisbon and Setúbal with Spain. It will shorten the distance between Sines and the border by three and a half hours.

The project, which will be ready in 2024, will be visited today by the Prime Minister, the Minster of Infrastructure, and the Secretary of State for Infrastructure under the Closer Government initiative. 

What is new: The main investment in this project is the construction of a rail line section, 80km, between Évora and Elvas. A rail track section of this size hadn’t been built in Portugal for more than a century.

The new Évora-Elvas line will be single-track, but the platform is being prepared to house a second track and may become European scale if one day Portugal and Spain decide to join this system.

With the line being electrified and road traffic being replaced by trains, this is an investment what will surely have a strong environmental impact.

Between the lines: In addition to the new line, the International South Corridor includes requalifying various sections of the Sines, South, Alentejo, East, Évora, and Vendas Novas lines. At the end, the entire Corridor will be electrified and will boast modern electronic signalling without any railroad crossings. 

Technical stations: The main innovation these works bring is the construction of technical stations that will enable freight trains 750m long to cross the lines, whereas the current structure only allows 400m-long trains to cross.

With the new South Corridor

• 51 trains measuring 750 metres leaving the Port of Sines every day, instead of the current 36 trains measuring 400 metres

• 140 km less in the Sines-Spain connection

• 3h30 less travel time

• 50% reduction in transport costs

The numbers

• 38,000 tonnes of steel

• 350,000 cubic metres of concrete

• 29 bridges and overpasses

• 1400 workers

• 3 million hours

The check, please: The works, which are under way on several fronts, are included in the 2020 Railroad plan and represent a 650-million-euro investment, partially funded by the European Union. The International South Corridor will be ready in 2024.