The Prime Minister stated this Tuesday, December 16, that the Government will launch on Wednesday, in the Council of Ministers, the public tender for the second phase of the high-speed line (Oiã to Soure), after a first failed attempt.
“Tomorrow [quarta-feira] Let’s decide on another matter that is related to the Coimbra region. We will launch the procedure for the second phase of the high-speed line between Oiã and Soure”, said Luís Montenegro, who was speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the Mondego Mobility System (SMM), which serves Coimbra, Lousã and Miranda do Corvo with electric buses running on a dedicated road.
For the Prime Minister, that project, also known as ‘metrobus’, will ensure “an approach to the Coimbra station on the high-speed line”.
Luís Montenegro highlighted that the ‘metrobus’ in Coimbra is “the most advanced project” of its kind in Portugal, which the Government then intends to replicate in Braga, Aveiro and Leiria, cities that will also be served by the high-speed line (something already defended in the past by the Minister of Infrastructure).
“We are not just looking at this project, which had the ambition to solve a 30-year-old problem […]but we are doing more than that. We are looking at a development strategy for the country according to which we want to simultaneously solve everyday mobility problems in urban centers, but at the same time we are trying to have a network where we all move more quickly and easily”, he said.
The second tender for the section of the high-speed line between Porto and Lisbon, which goes from Oiã (Oliveira do Bairro) to Soure, comes after the first procedure (launched in July 2024) fell through, with the only proposal being rejected by the jury, after proposing the diversion of the high-speed line station from Coimbra-B to Taveiro, outside the city of Coimbra, contrary to what was foreseen in the project.
The Government even indicated that the public competition would be relaunched in May, then in the summer, with the last guarantee being given to the new mayor of Coimbra, Ana Abrunhosa, that the procedure would be open by the end of this year.