The metro lines to Gondomar and Trofa will be the first to advance in the next network expansion package. But the president of the Metropolitan Council of Porto, Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues, says that the routes to Matosinhos and Maia are to be executed. The tenders should be launched by summer
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The President of the Metropolitan Council of Porto, Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues, recalls that there are four metro expansion projects on the table and that they "were defined in a protocol signed in Gondomar": the routes for Trofa, Gondomar, Matosinhos and Maia. After the construction phase of the Rosa line in Porto, the extension of the Yellow line to Vila d'Este, in Gaia, and the Rubi line, between Campo Alegre and Arrábida Shopping, "the execution projects for the other lines" will advance. These tenders should advance until the summer.
"The information that the Minister [of the Environment, Duarte Cordeiro] made public is that until the summer the projects are launched to tender," he stressed.
The mayor of Gaia also recalls "the controversy" created around the signing of the protocol for the study of the subway network expansion routes, signed in February 2020 at the Gondomar City Hall, noting that it confirms, today, "the good faith" of the Metropolitan Area of Porto (AMP) and the Government.
The solution found for Trofa was to build part of the line in metro and the rest in metrobus. "That was the feasibility solution. It was accepted by everyone that it would only make sense to invest if the line, at the very least, was balanced and had no kind of deficit," notes Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues.
"What was evident at the time, given the money available, was that Gondomar and Trofa were priorities from the point of view of sustainability and construction viability. The Matosinhos project was higher than the amount available in the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) for financing, which meant that either it was going to be excluded or else, as it happened, the Municipality revised the project in conjunction with Metro do Porto. The same happened with Maia", explains the Mayor of Gaia, stressing that "the priorities were defined according to criteria of financial sustainability of the network".
"The four lines are really to be done".
What was negotiated with the Government, clarifies the mayor, "was the start of the execution projects of the four lines, knowing that in the funding immediately available, most likely only fits Gondomar and Trofa", which will have funds from Portugal 2030 and PRR. While these implementation projects are being treated, the preparation of the funding model "which will be defined by June of this year" advances.
Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues notes that there is "a financial package dedicated to mobility under Portugal 2030", believing that there is enough money to move forward with the Matosinhos and Maia routes, with a "time lag of little time" in relation to the Gondomar and Trofa lines.
"The big goal of mobility and the decarbonization project to which Portugal committed itself is 2034. Therefore, what we have to do is ensure that the four lines are really to do, knowing that probably Gondomar and Trofa advance already", concludes.
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