The train connection to the airport of Faro is one of the works foreseen in the National Investment Plan (PNI) 2030, announced by the Government last week, but Rogério Bacalhau, president of the Chamber of Faro, despite being "naturally satisfied", is "skeptical" about the work on the ground.
According to the PNI, the project should advance in the period between 2021 and 2026. The value of the investment is not explicit, since the total of 130 million euros, announced by the Government, is for the Road and Rail Access Program to National Airports, which includes, in addition to investment in Faro, also the train connection to Sá Carneiro Airport, in Porto, and the restructuring of road accessibilities to Humberto Delgado Airport, in Lisbon. The work will be financed by the State and by ANA Aeroportos, according to the document.
Despite the Government's explicit intentions in the Plan, Rogério Bacalhau, speaking to the Sul Informação, recalls that «many of these works have been in these plans for decades». Therefore, the mayor says he is "skeptical", even because "the information we had was that this was a work to be done, if the environmental study allowed".
In January 2017, Pedro Marques, Minister of Planning and Infrastructure, came to the Algarve and announced that the train connection to the airport of Faro it would be one of his "priorities for a future intervention in the railway in Portugal" and that it would be a work to advance, “if not before, at the beginning of the next community framework”. But, all this if it were “possible from an environmental point of view”.
More than a year later, Carlos Fernandes, vice president of Infraestruturas de Portugal, addressed the project, saying that the rail connection from the Algarve Line to the Airport of Faro, could cost between 20 to 25 million euros and would be studied. However, he stressed that the work is an “essentially environmental and not so much financial” problem.
According to the official, the indication that IP had from the Ministry of Planning and Infrastructure was to “develop studies to assess the connection of the national railway network to the Airport”.
These studies that, if they were carried out, the Chamber of Faro does not know: «I am not aware that any study has been carried out in this regard. The Chamber was not contacted», Rogério Bacalhau assured the Sul Informação.
The railway connection to the Airport of Faro, "if it moves forward", according to the mayor, "it can stimulate a set of investments in the county", namely in terms of mobility, since, in the revision of the PDM of Faro, which «is walking» and that Rogério Bacalhau hopes to be completed by the end of the year, is planned the creation of the intermodal station in Patacão, which would change the current structure of train lines in the city.
In this scenario, «the rail link to downtown Faro, would be made by another type of train, lighter», concludes the mayor.
Comments