| Work Detail |
The Portugal’s Council of Ministries approved an increased funding of EUR 150 million for Lisbon LRT project between Odivelas and Loures municipalities, known as the Violet Line. This amends a resolution from November 27, 2023, allowing an increase of approximately 28% in the contract value. In addition to increasing the overall investment value, the opening of new national and European sources of financing are authorised. The challenges posed by the various changes and modifications have led to the postponement of the commissioning of the new line, from the initial deadline of mid-2026 to 2029. The competition for the construction of the Violet Line resulted in the exclusion of all the proposals submitted, as they exceeded the base price of the competition opened by the previous government, by an average of around 46%. The price update that occurred between the completion of the study and the time of the new public procurement procedure for the project led the Government to approve, through a new resolution of the Council of Ministers, an increase of EUR 150 million to the total value of the project. The government says that the delay in the contract makes it impossible for the work to be carried out and completed within the programming period of Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), making a substantial part of the financing from this source impossible. The importance of carrying out this work and given that it is one of the government’s goals to bring more people onto public transport, also means that replacing the RRP will involve recourse to the EIB and strengthening the national financing component, through the State Budget and the Environmental Fund. Violet Line has been approved under the Recovery and Resilience Plan with an initial investment of EUR 250 million euros for the design and construction of the railway infrastructure, as well as the acquisition of rolling stock and the signalling system. Urban redevelopment works in Loures and Odivelas, as well as the costs of expropriations, which were initially the responsibility of the local authorities, are now included in the project. These changes, are now reflected in the initial estimated costs and imply an adjustment of the deadline and an increase in the total cost of the project to EUR 277.3 million. With the approval by the Council of Ministers in November 2023, the total investment in the Violet Line will be EUR 527.3 million, with EUR 390 million coming from the PRR, in the form of a loan, and EUR 137.3 million from the State Budget. In March 2024, an internation tender has been launched which included the design and construction of the light rail line, the surrounding urban redevelopment, supply of light rail vehicles and provision of maintenance services for the railway infrastructure and vehicles. The base price of this procedure was EUR 450 million, plus VAT. Lisbon LRT project consists of the construction of a 11.5 km line served by 17 stations linking the two municipalities and will be built in a mix of surface line (including 12 stations), a 3.3 km underground section with 3 stops and tranches with two stations. In Loures the line will have 6.4 km with 9 stations which will serve the parishes of Loures, Santo António dos Cavaleiros and Frielas. In the municipality of Odivelas the line will be 5.1 km long with 8 stations crossing through Póvoa de Santo Adrião and Olival de Basto, Odivelas, Ramada and Caneças. Odivelas – Loures light rail project is a result of a collaboration protocol signed by the Lisbon Metro, the Loures City Council and the Odivelas City Council in July 2021. This agreement paved the way to develop the study, planning and implementation procedure to expand the urban rail transport. The new line will be connected to the existing Yellow Metro Line in Lisbon at Odivelas station, the northern terminus on the Yellow Line. This line will extend along a “C” corridor, which will connect the two terminals, Hospital Beatriz Ângelo and Infantado, both located in the Municipality of Loures, to the Odivelas station of the Lisbon Metro, situated in the Municipality of Odivelas, which will act as a fundamental interface for this new light rail line. |
