Portugal Trip 2019

[ivanhoe]

Me and a mate are doing are annual international railtrip to Portugal in April .Can't get over how cheap it is if you can book in advance. Flying out to Faro and next day train Faro to Lisbon .Three nights in Lisbon followed by train to Porto. Highlights of Porto includes train up the Duoro Valley followed by boat back to Porto.
Very few trains enter Portugal from Spain other than the overnight from Madrid and the Vigo to Porto line. The times aren't very good from Porto for us who will be no doubt be drinking copious amounts of Port the night before ,so it's the Alsa coach to Santiago de compestella for a couple of nights before flying back. Looking forward to Galician Food. Don't you just love Octopus , Pulpo!
First class rail fares, Duoro trip and coach all coming to about 110 euros each.

 

[MarcVD]

Very few trains enter Portugal from Spain other than the overnight from Madrid and the Vigo to Porto line

Very few... are there any ?

 

[JB_B]

Very few... are there any ?

One daily Entroncamento - Badajoz and v.v. ( Trains 5500/5501).

 

[Giugiaro]

That's basically it. Two daily Celtas to Vigo, one daily Suditânia to Madrid/Hendaye and one daily secret watermelon to Badajoz.

 

[duesselmartin]

hard to imagine that a day train Lisboa-Madrid might not be viable.

 

[eastwestdivide]

That's basically it. Two daily Celtas to Vigo, one daily Suditânia to Madrid/Hendaye and one daily secret watermelon to Badajoz.

...watermelon??? What's that about? Autocorrect or a local name for something? I'm intgrigued.

 

[Giugiaro]

We Portuguese enthusiasts have nicknames for our trains. The green and cream DMU's running from Entroncamento to Badajoz are called Watermelons.

 

[eastwestdivide]

We Portuguese enthusiasts have nicknames for our trains. The green and cream DMU's running from Entroncamento to Badajoz are called Watermelons.

Excellent - thanks.
These ones I presume: https://www.railwaygazette.com/news...nto-badajoz-passenger-service-reinstated.html
I think I understand the reason for the name

 

[Giugiaro]

Yes, those are the ones.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

The Celta is a nice interesting run Porto to Vigo (then connection up to Santiago).
When I went, the Celta DMUs (ex-RENFE) were the same ones used on the Douro Valley run.
All easily manageable in a day.

 

[Mag_seven]

We Portuguese enthusiasts have nicknames for our trains.

Don't worry, so do we Brits!

 

[MarcVD]

Thank you for the info ! The secret watermelon I was not aware of (normal, it's a secret, eh!).

 

[Giugiaro]

hard to imagine that a day train Lisboa-Madrid might not be viable.

Well... about that...
The former president of CP, Manuel Queiró, had plans to run day services to Madrid as part of the InterCity/Alfa services, with an estimated 5 hour journey at start, which required rolling stock the company currently lacks.

The "Tory" and "Labour" governments promptly said NO. (For reasons I can't bother to say right now [because they're tooooooooooo many])

 

[MarcVD]

Does CP need a government approval to lease the rolling stock if he can't buy it ? If the train is to be successful, it should be able to bear its own leasing charges, shouldn't it ?

 

[Giugiaro]

CP needs government approval for any spending it needs to do.
This applies to both current expenses and future investments. No exceptions.
Rules set by the Ministry of Finances (Portuguese Treasury) after this decade's financial crisis.

While it keeps the national budget under tight control, it's having almost as bad an effect as a private company maximizing for profit... while cutting on profitable services. Which is actually worse!?

As I said, there are reasons behind this nonsense.