Portugal’s rail operator to buy 20 high-speed trains

The company that runs Portugal’s railways, CP, has purchased 20 trains for its high-speed rail project.

The operator will acquire 12 motorized trains for the TGV and an option to buy a further eight in an investment estimated at €584 million.

Each one will have a 500 seat capacity to operate at a maximum of 300km/h.

According to the Mobility 2.0 plan approved by the Portuguese government on Thursday last week at a meeting of the Council of Ministers, dedicated to the modernisation of the railways sector, the investment will be €584 million, including 45 million for the creation of workshops and equipment.

In December 2025, the Infrastructures minister, Miguel Pinto Luz had announced that in January, 2026, the government would decide how many trains Comboios de Portugal (CP) would buy for the new TGV service, but at the time did not release the cost of the investment.

In 2024, the same minister told parliament that the government would not buy as many trains as CP wanted for the TGV, but added that it wanted both private as well as public entities involved in the competitions.

A that time CP intended to acquire 16 new trains for €520 million.

The competition will be for the construction of the Oiã-Soure stretch of the TGV between Lisbon and Porto – and a 30-year concession involving a total investment of €2.4Bn.

SOURCE: Jornal Económico