Portugal Orders 153 Trains for Lisbon & Porto Commutes

Portugal’s flag-carrier railway operator has just placed the biggest rolling-stock order in its 168-year history, a move that promises quieter commutes, a greener network and hundreds of industrial jobs even before the first carriage leaves the factory floor.

A contract that almost slipped the timetable

Years of court challenges, wrangling over state aid and a change of government threatened to derail the deal, yet on a windswept morning this October CP finally initialled papers for 153 new electric multiple-units. The €746 M contract goes to a consortium headed by Alstom with Braga-based group DST as its local partner. Three rivals—CAF, Stadler and Siemens—filed injunctions that froze the tender during 2024 and part of 2025; those suspensions were lifted only this summer, clearing the platform for the signing. The original tender covered 117 units, but Lisbon instructed CP to trigger an optional batch of 36 extra urban sets, bringing the order to its current size and allowing the company to swap out roughly 35 % of its ageing fleet.

What passengers in Lisbon, Porto and beyond will actually notice

From 2029, commuters on the Sintra, Cascais and Sado lines—and their counterparts on Porto’s Aveiro, Braga and Guimarães routes—should see trains with level boarding, USB sockets, Wi-Fi and regenerative braking that feeds power back into the grid. Regional travellers to Évora, Covilhã or Guarda get their own share of the upgrade, too: 55 of the 153 units are earmarked for longer-distance services and come fitted with reclining seats and bicycle racks. CP engineers say the new stock will slash energy consumption by up to 30 % compared with coaches dating to the 1990s, cutting maintenance downtime that currently forces chronic cancellations on peak-hour diagrams.

Two factories, one goal: build capacity at home

Assembly is split between Barcelona—where the first bodyshells roll off the line in early 2027—and a revamped plant in Guifões, Matosinhos, north of Porto. The Guifões facility, dormant since the closure of EMEF’s heavy-maintenance workshops in 2019, will employ about 300 direct staff and generate an estimated 1,500 indirect posts in metalworking, electronics and signalling. Alstom executives say Portugal could capture as much as 75 % local content once the supply chain matures, turning the site into a springboard for future high-speed or hydrogen projects aimed at export markets.

Financing: a puzzle of pots and penalties

Cash comes from several buckets: €109.7 M of Environmental Fund money, tranches of the PRR recovery plan, and conventional Treasury bonds. Yet litigation delays have already cost the project roughly €191 M in lost Sustainable 2030 grants, forcing the Finance Ministry to backfill with the state budget or chase new EU funding calls. Officials insist that unit prices for the additional 36 trains mirror those of the original order, guarding the tender against inflationary creep.

A lynchpin in the country’s decarbonisation gamble

Swapping diesel traction for all-electric trainsets dovetails with Portugal’s legally binding target of net-zero emissions by 2050. Rail already accounts for only 1 % of national transport CO₂, but policymakers aim to coax drivers off the A1 and A2 motorways by offering faster, more reliable services on steel wheels. The purchase meshes with the Plano Ferrovia 2030, which rings-fences billions for track quadrupling, ERTMS signalling and new branches to the ports of Sines and Leixões. Each new EMU is expected to save around 3,000 t of carbon over its life cycle when replacing a diesel consist.

Spin-offs for the domestic supply chain

Electrical-cabinet maker Efacec, door-system specialist Serncable and dozens of SMEs along the coast have already signed letters of intent with Alstom/DST. Polytechnic institutes in Porto and Setúbal will run upskilling courses in mechatronics tailored to the build. The government hopes the cluster can evolve into a permanent rolling-stock competence centre, replicating the aerospace or wind-turbine playbooks that have raised Portugal’s export intensity over the past decade.

Next mileposts—and why the schedule still matters

Baseline delivery begins Q1 2029 and runs for 40 months, but CP is pressing the consortium to shift the calendar left by at least two quarters. An earlier arrival would ease chronic fleet shortages aggravated by tourist season surges and the postponement of Intercidades refurbishments. Penalty clauses kick in if more than 10 trainsets slip past 2032, a warning shot the operator hopes will keep production on track. Meanwhile, a separate 22-unit regional order with Stadler—signed back in 2020—remains on course for first arrival late next year, providing a modest stopgap until the Alstom stock comes on-stream.

For Portugal’s long-suffering rail passengers the headline is clear: modern trains are finally on the way, and this time the paperwork is no longer the bottleneck.