“The rail link between Lisbon-Porto and Porto-Fronteira and Vigo-A Coruña is, without a doubt, the greatest achievement from the point of view of political impulse that the euroregion has achieved in recent years,” said Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
The mayor was speaking at the plenary meeting of the Galicia – North of Portugal Working Community, which on 28 July formally marked the transition of the institution's presidency.
The president of the North Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR-N), António Cunha, succeeds Alberto Núñez Feijóo in leading the Working Community, which also presented the Joint Investment Plan for the Euroregion for the period 2021-2027.
“We are all very interested that the AVE [high-speed link] Vigo-Porto manages a continuous connection between Lisbon and A Coruña that will reduce travel times, for which the south is essential”, continued the mayor of Galicia.
“Fortunately, in my recent hearings with Prime Minister [António] Costa and President [Marcelo] Rebelo I was able to see that Galicia's drive towards this goal is shared by the Portuguese Government,” he declared.
In October, at the presentation of the National Investment Program (PNI) 2030, the Minister of Infrastructure, Pedro Nuno Santos, said that the goals for the railway are focused, among others, on the creation of a new Porto-Vigo line (Spain) lasting one hour, as well as the electrification of the network by 2030.
The new line that will connect those two cities represents an investment of 900 million € for Portugal and 578 million € for the Spanish, for a total of 21 kilometers, revealed Alberto Núñez Feijóo at the time.
At the ceremony that took place on 28 July in Salvaterra do Miño, Spain, the president of the Galician Council also spoke of the improvement of the connection between Celanova (Ourense-Spain) and the Portuguese border, a project that involves an investment of around nine million € and would help to improve communication with the city of Braga, in Portugal.
On the other hand, the mayor defended a connection by highway between the station of Gudiña and Portugal, which would allow “the northeast of Trás-os-Montes to enjoy the AVE by road to the station A Gudiña”.
Created in 1991, the Galicia – North of Portugal Work Community, which had not met in person since May 2017, formally resumed its work on 28 December 2020, with the visit of the president of CCDR-N to Santiago de Compostela.