The Portuguese government has confirmed that a new high-speed train route between Madrid and Lisbon will be operational by 2034.
According to Euronews Travel, last year, the Spanish state railway company Renfe announced plans to launch trains connecting the capitals of Spain and Portugal, as well as the northwestern Spanish port city of La Coruña with Portugal’s Porto. The Spanish side states that by 2030, it will complete the section of the route from Madrid to Extremadura (which borders Portugal), with stops in Toledo and Talavera.
Portugal is developing its own high-speed rail line, with the first part expected to be completed in 2024 and ready for initial services in 2025. The 100-kilometer line from Elvas to Evora will reduce travel time between Lisbon in western Portugal and Badajoz in western Spain from three and a half hours to less than two hours. This line will become part of the broader Iberian high-speed rail network, which will also connect Lisbon to Porto in approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes—less than half the current travel time.
According to the Spanish news site El Español, there is hope that the train route between Madrid and Lisbon via Badajoz in six hours by 2027, and in three hours by 2034 when the entire route is completed.
