Comboios de Portugal - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

CP — Comboios de Portugal, EPE (CP; English: Trains of Portugal) is a state-owned company which operates freight and passenger trains in Portugal. Before June 2009, CP stood for Caminhos de Ferro Portugueses (English: Portuguese Railways) although the company has been using its current designation as a brand name since 2004.

History

On 28 October 1856 the first railway line was inaugurated in Portugal, between Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

and Carregado

Carregado

Carregado is a Portuguese parish, located in the municipality of Alenquer. It has a population of 9,066 inhabitants and a total area of 15.52 km². The town is a north-east exurb of Lisbon....

: the Companhia dos Caminhos de Ferro Portugueses was born. The network was gradually expanded both south of the Tagus

Tagus

The Tagus is the longest river on the Iberian Peninsula. It is long, in Spain, along the border between Portugal and Spain and in Portugal, where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean at Lisbon. It drains an area of . The Tagus is highly utilized for most of its course...

and to the north of the country, as well as in the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Oporto and to Spain.

Gradually, electrification was put in place for a little less than half the network. In 1975, the company was nationalized

Nationalization

Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...

and its name was shortened to CP, which used to stand for Caminhos de Ferro Portugueses.

A plan to finally connect all the district capitals by a fully electrified double line will be implemented from 2010. Part of this plan is based on the Swiss Rail 2000

Rail 2000

Rail 2000 is a large-scale project of the Swiss Federal Railways established in 1987 to improve the quality of the Swiss rail network. It includes measures to accelerate a number of existing connections and the modernisation of rolling stock...

model.

Organisation

CP is split into four divisions:

CP Longo Curso, long-distance mainline services (Alfa Pendular, Intercidades and International trains).
CP Regional, regional services (Interregional and Regional).
CP Lisboa, Lisbon's suburban network.
CP Porto, Porto's suburban network.

The network

CP's flagship service, introduced in 1999, is the Alfa Pendular

Alfa Pendular

Alfa Pendular is the name of the Pendolino high-speed tilting train of Portuguese state railway company CP. It connects the cities of Braga, Porto, Aveiro, Coimbra, Santarém, Lisbon, Albufeira and Faro, among others at speeds of up to ....

which operates between Braga

Braga

Braga , a city in the Braga Municipality in northwestern Portugal, is the capital of the Braga District, the oldest archdiocese and the third major city of the country. Braga is the oldest Portuguese city and one of the oldest Christian cities in the World...

- Oporto - Lisbon - Faro

Faro, Portugal

Faro is the southernmost city in Portugal. It is located in the Faro Municipality in southern Portugal. The city proper has 41,934 inhabitants and the entire municipality has 58,305. It is the seat of the Faro District and capital of the Algarve region...

, at a top speed of 220 km/h (138 mph) with FIAT/Siemens tilting train

Tilting train

A tilting train is a train that has a mechanism enabling increased speed on regular rail tracks. As a train rounds a curve at speed, objects inside the train experience centrifugal force. This can cause packages to slide about or seated passengers to feel squashed by the outboard armrest due to...

s. As of 2006, CP's network reaches most of the country.

CP inaugurated new trains in suburban service in the 1990s.

Lines/Routes

Linha da Póvoa (Metro do Porto)
Linha do Minho
Ramal de Braga
Linha de Guimarães
Linha de Leixões
Linha do Douro
Linha do Tâmega
Linha do Corgo
Linha do Tua (through concession with Metro de Mirandela)
Linha do Norte
Linha do Norte
Linha do Norte is the Portuguese main railway track that connects the two main Portuguese cities, Lisbon and Porto. In its 314 km, it crosses some other important cities like Vila Franca de Xira, Santarém, Entroncamento, Pombal, Coimbra, Aveiro, Espinho e Vila Nova de Gaia, among others...
Linha do Vale do Vouga
Linha da Beira Alta
Ramal da Figueira da Foz
Ramal da Lousã
Ramal de Alfarelos
Linha do Oeste
Linha do Oeste
Linha do Oeste is a railway line serving the central western coast of Portugal belonging to REFER network. The line was opened in 1887.Passenger services are operated by CP....
Ramal do Louriçal
Ramal de Tomar
Linha da Beira Baixa
Linha do Leste
Ramal de Cáceres
Linha de Vendas Novas
Linha da Matinha
Linha de Cintura
Linha de Sintra
Linha de Cascais
Linha do Alentejo
Linha de Évora
Ramal Neves Corvo
Linha do Sul
Linha de Sines
Linha do Algarve

Former lines

Linha Lisboa-Carregado
Linha de Sintra
Linha de Torres Vedras

REFER

Rede Ferroviária Nacional (National Railway Network) REFER, EP (EP stands for Empresa Publica, "public enterprise") became the Portuguese rail infrastructure manager in 1997.

Portuguese railway network extent:

Broad gauge
Broad gauge
Broad-gauge railways use a track gauge greater than the standard gauge of .- List :For list see: List of broad gauges, by gauge and country- History :...

: 2603 km, 1351 km electrified at 25kV 50Hz AC and 25 km at 1.5kV DC.
Narrow gauge : 188 km not electrified.
The maximum extent of 3592 km was reached in 1949, but in the late 1980s and early 1990s some lines were shortened and some totally closed.

External links