Portugal’s second-largest city put into commercial operation the first made-in-China metro train in the EU last week, according to reports.
Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa travelled to Porto to take a ride on its first day of operation, inaugurating the service and emphasising his government’s investment of nearly US$54 million from the EU recovery fund.
Costa also revealed plans for a further investment of more than US$1 billion in the public infrastructure of key cities including Lisbon, Braga and Porto.
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The Metro do Porto collaborative project began in early 2020 with the state-owned company signing a 5-year maintenance contract with Chinese manufacturer CRRC Tangshan, which supplied the 18 new train carriages. The first train arrived in Portugal at the end of 2022.
Demand for the metro is high, with Metro do Porto transporting a record-breaking 72 million passengers in 2023. The company has also started construction on a new line to Santo Ovídio, including a new bridge, and launched a new metrobus.
Porto opened its first metro line in 2002, with the service growing to six lines, more than 80 stations and 67 km of track to service a metro region of around 1.3 million people. The network has transported more than 1 billion passengers in its 21-year history, a ridership that reduced nationwide carbon emissions by around 55,000 tons annually.
