Brussels has already given 196 million euros to Portugal for Iberian high speed and says it will be a reality

The European Commission has already mobilized around 196 million euros for Portugal since 2014 for studies and works on the high-speed line aimed at the future Lisbon-Madrid connection, hoping that the project “will become a reality”.
“[The high-speed line] Madrid-Lisbon will be a reality in the coming years. And, as you can see on the map and from the efforts we are making since the beginning of this mandate, we must ensure that the single market works well and that Europe is truly united, which means I am in constant dialogue with the transport and infrastructure ministers of France, Spain, and Portugal, to ensure that the Iberian Peninsula is well connected by rail and road in the coming years,” said the European Commissioner for Transport, Apostolos Tzitzikostas.
Speaking at a press conference in Brussels on the day the community executive presents a plan for a European high-speed rail network, the European official in charge pointed out that “it is very important to ensure that there is adequate funding”.
In response to Lusa, Apostolos Tzitzikostas said that “financial accessibility […] is provided by competition,” when asked about possible prices compared to those of low-cost airlines, for example.
“If we present people with fast, well-connected trains that link many cities and capitals across Europe, with a way to get somewhere quickly and safely, you can be sure that citizens will definitely choose the train over any other means of transport,” he added.
So far, according to data obtained by Lusa, the European Commission has already allocated 196 million euros from the Connecting Europe Facility, which finances the construction, development, and modernization of infrastructure, to five projects for the Portuguese side of the railway line, including sections originating from the ports of Setúbal and Sines.
Since 2014, the Sines/Elvas railway line on the Évora-Caia section and the technical station at kilometer (km) 118 of the southern line have been supported with 116 million euros.
Between the following year and 2020, 2.5 million euros were mobilized for studies for the southern international corridor (Sines/Setúbal/Lisbon-Caia).
For the second phase of the Évora-Caia section, in the Sines/Elvas railway connection, 55.8 million euros have been awarded since 2016.
Since 2020, studies for the high-speed railway connection for the Lisbon-Madrid section have been financed with a total of 3.9 million euros.
An additional 17.4 million euros have been allocated since 2021 for the Évora-Évora Norte section of the Sines/Elvas railway connection.
Spain has been allocated around 750 million euros in support since 2014 for the high-speed line connecting Extremadura to Madrid.
The governments of Portugal and Spain and the European Commission agreed last Thursday on a set of actions that will allow progress on the railway connection between Lisbon and Madrid by 2030, with a five-hour journey, which will then be reduced to three hours by 2034.
The project is part of the European commitment to railways.
The idea of connecting Lisbon and Madrid by a high-speed line has been discussed for several years, and in the 2000s, the governments of Portugal and Spain had already agreed that the line should cross the border at Elvas and Badajoz.
On the Portuguese side, the high-speed section between Lisbon and Elvas was planned during the previous financial crisis, but the project was suspended due to costs, controversies over projects, and the need to adapt the railway gauge.