Exploring Portugal by Train provides a unique perspective on the rural and urban beauty of the country’s dramatic coastlines, tranquil river valleys and bustling metropolitan centres. Like our own railway network, the route from A to B isn’t always obvious, but we’re here to help you ride the rails with ease.
Portugal’s train services are divided into five categories: Alfa Pendular, Inter Cidades, Inter Regional, Regional and Urbano. Usually, the longer the distance, the more modern and comfortable the train, although there are some exceptions to this rule. Most services we can book for you in advance – 1st Class seats are cheap, and culturally Portuguese passengers always sit in their assigned seats. Some services allow you to make day trips from one city to another, and we’ll often add these as suggestions in your holiday. There are also a few special routes which are in danger of being modernised – now’s the time to ride those before they lose their old-world charm, and we’ve created a few special holidays around these these routes.
Alfa Pendular: these are the high-speed express services which run from Braga in the north, via Porto and the university city of Coimbra, to the capital Lisbon. From here, the service runs south, through Alentejo (without stopping) to the seaside towns of Albufeira and Faro in the Algarve. The cost of 1st class travel is pretty cheap, with A/C, Wi-Fi, plenty of luggage rack space, and a buffet car. You can fly internally between Portugal’s major cities, but we find the Alfa is a much nicer experience if you’re travelling from Lisbon to Porto.
Inter Cidades: these trains connect the country’s main towns and cities. They’re not quite as fast as the Alfa services as they tend to make more frequent stops, which is advantageous if you’re exploring some of the less-visited regions of Portugal and historic cities like Coimbra and Evora. The carriages might not be as modern as the Alfas, but they’re still comfortable in 1st Class, with reserved seating and all the same facilities.
Inter Regional: IR trains are medium-fast and ply the Second Order lines, connecting the smaller regional cities and rural towns to the Alfa and Inter Cidades routes. We can book these for you in advance – there’s just one class without seat reservations, but the services tend to be quiet and finding a seat isn’t usually a problem. The train stock often varies depending on the route, mostly multiple units from the 19090s and early 2000s.
The classic IR route is the Linho do Douro – it’s closer to a heritage line than a modern passenger service, with 1960s diesel electric locomotives and equally-vintage rolling stock. A lack of investment and electrification is the source of its charms, but it’s probably only a matter of time before it’s upgraded. Regardless of the trains themselves, it’s one of Europe’s most-scenic railway journeys and the highlight of our Porto and the Douro Valley by Train holiday.
Regional: like the IR services, Regionals are usually multiple units which connect the smaller towns. For many residents, it’s their local service so the trains to stop at every station – they also run at a fairly sedate pace, so a relatively slow way of getting around. They can be busy in and around the cities, but they’re quiet once you’re into the outlying countryside.
However, it’s usually the Regional services which allow you to wander off the normal tourist trails – to explore the striking forts in Elvas or the fascinating Templar town of Tomar. Again, we can reserve your tickets in advance – single class and no seat reservations.
Urbanos: these are the commuter services connecting Lisbon and Porto with their respective suburbs – they’re usually single class but new/modern air-conditioned EMUs. Tickets can only be purchased on the day of travel (although passes are available), and you must validate your ticket before boarding the train. Having purchased a ticket from one of the machines, you hold it up to one of the yellow ticket readers, wait for the green light to come on, and it’s validated. If you don’t validate your ticket, it won’t work when you try to exit the automated gate at your destination station. It’s a strange system which will hopefully be replaced with the TfL-style tap-in/tap-out method soon.
If you’re staying in Lisbon or Porto, you’re more likely to use their trams over the Urbano – although in Lisbon, the Urbano is a good option for visiting the historic district of Belem, the beaches at Cascais, and the palace town of Sintra.
Top tips for travelling by train.
- Reconfirm your train times twenty-four hours prior to your journey via the Comboios de Portugal website, and look out for engineering works and replacement buses, (particularly on weekends).
- Each train service has a unique designated number which is displayed on your ticket – for example Alfa Pendular – Train Number 133 – making it easier to locate your train on the departures board when it’s been assigned a platform number. The boards around the station might only show your train’s ultimate distination – if in doubt, check with the station staff, but matching your train number will usually guide you to the correct train.
- Carry a paper copy of your ticket; it makes the conductors happy as its quicker to scan a paper ticket.
- Travel lighter – the luggage racks are quite generous on Portuguese trains, but small and/or bags means you’re more nimble.
- Also, Portugal’s calcada cobbled streets are charming to look at, but they’re a pain if you’re trying to wheel a heavy suitcase around. We mitigate against this by having taxi drop-offs and pick-ups from hotels and train stations, but travelling lighter helps once again. We’ll schedule your taxis so there’s no rush, giving you time to enjoy the impressive architecture of the stations.
- Check the duration of your rail journey and plan your meals accordingly – not all services have a buffet car, so taking along a packed lunch/snacks and water is advisable.
- Always sit in your designated seat – it’s a big cultural no-no to sit in someone else’s seat on a Portuguese train. Your seat is displayed on your ticket – it has a carruagem (carriage) number and lugar (seat) number.
- We’ll time your trains to keep you away from the rush hour peak – you may still find Regional and Inter Regional services (with their unreserved seats) are busy when you leave a city; they’ll usually quieten down once you’re through the suburbs.
- With Portugal’s older trains (usually Regional and Inter Regional once again), there’s a substantial gap/drop from the carriage to the platform – it helps to make a note of your penultimate station so you can make a move to the doorway in preparation for disembarking.
- Smaller regional stations are often unmanned, have those big platform gaps, and unfortunately passenger assistance isn’t available. If you have restricted mobility, the Alfa Pendulars are similar to our own inter-city trains and stop in the larger, more-modern stations so you might prefer to stick to these services and the cities they connect.
A brief history of Portugal’s railways.
Industrialisation came to Portugal slightly later than some of its European neighbours, and the early development of the country’s railway network was driven by British and French railway magnates – keen to replicate their financial successes at home, they saw an opportunity to be at the head of the next railway gold rush. The first railway line was inaugurated in 1856 and ran from Lisbon, following the banks of the Tagus River to the town of Carregada – a line which still exists today. A mainline north to Porto followed in 1864, and quickly changed the relationship between these two large urban centres and the surrounding countryside. These transportation hubs connected Portugal’s rural interior to the rest of the world, via their Atlantic ports, and the transportation of agricultural produce goods switched from the slower inland waterways to the more rapid railways. The rapid increase in international trade and the promise of higher wages also enticed farm workers to relocate into the cities.
These early years were marked by controversies, as foreign investors played fast and loose with their accounting, and often failed to follow through on their promised investments. A National Railway Plan was created in 1874: a formalised development strategy which divided the railway network into three categories, (which still exist today): First Order lines crossed the country from north to south and east to west, linking Portugal to the Spanish railway network, and instigating a change from standard gauge to the large Iberian gauge. Second Order lines principally ran east to west, connecting regional cities such as Braga, Coimbra and Evora with a First Order line. Third Order lines connected the outlying smaller towns to a Second Order line – these tended to be single track lines and were often narrow (metre) gauge; some were subsequently upgraded to Iberian gauge (with the exception of the Linha do Vouga); many have long since closed. Today’s 21st century Alfa Pendular/Regional/Urbano services still reflect these 19th century divisions.
Implementation of the National Railway Plan initially concentrated on lines in the north, connecting agricultural areas, such as the vineyards of the Douro Valley, to Atlantic seaports, with an eye on increasing international exports. South of Lisbon, the Alentejo and Algarve regions were expected to create the financial circumstances for the introduction of its railways by introducing ‘desirable’ industries and investment opportunities. The formidable barrier of the Tagus River has divided the country since it’s inception in the 12th century, and would be costly to bridge. Even with the great Gustave Eiffel designing railway crossings in the north of the country, no serious plans were considered to connect Lisbon with Alentejo and beyond. As a result, the south of Portugal was, and still is severely underserved by the railway network. It’s also surprising to note that the railway didn’t cross the Tagus River until 1999, when a double track platform was added to the Ponta 25 de Avril.
Railway development was put on hold following the dissolution of the monarchy in 1910, and the initial, chaotic first years of the 1st Republic caused the economy to tank. The National Railway Plan was torn up by Salazar with the establishment of the Estada Novo regime in 1933, as he enforced a policy of austerity to pull the economy out of its nosedive. Famously isolationist, he discouraged any further development of cross-border connections with Spain and Portugal was increasingly isolated from the rest of Europe. The last of the privately funded railways was folded into the state-owned Comboios de Portugal (CP) in 1947. State investment was scarce – the Linha do Norte, Linha de Sintra, and Linha de Evora were all electrified in the 1950s and 1960s, however the infrastructure of many of the Third Order lines hadn’t been upgraded since the tracks were first laid. Parallel to this, an increased investment in road building and the development of the automobile industry added to a general stagnation in railway investment.
As car use rose, train use declined, triggering a massive programme of dismantlement, with almost one third of the Portuguese rail network being partially or completely deactivated by 2011. By contrast, the Urbano lines have seen an increase in passenger numbers year-on-year, as population numbers in Lisbon and Porto grow, and workers commute by train from the spawling suburbs. And at time of writing, (February 2025), passenger services were reintroduced on the Linha de Leixoes this month after an absence of fourteen years, providing a much-needed connection between the western suburbs of Porto and the city’s largest hospital.
Encouraged by the European Commission’s strategy for transportation, the high-speed Alfa Pendular fleet was launched in 2011, drastically reducing the travel time between Braga and Porto in the north, the capital Lisbon, and Faro in the south. The strategy also calls for international passenger rail to be reintroduced between Lisbon and Madrid, and there’s a commitment in place by both the Portuguese and Spanish governments to build a new high-speed line by 2030. However, there’s still no consensus on where route the line might take. There are currently two cross border lines: from Vigo on the Spanish side to Viana do Castelo in the north – it’s a Third Order line which connects you to the Alfa Pendular service in Porto. However, it’s tricky getting to Vigo and there are usually on two services per day. There’s also a border crossing from Badajoz to Entroncamento – it’s also a Third Order line, but services from Entroncamento into Lisbon are frequent and fast. There are rumours regarding the possible reintroduction of the Trenhotel Lusitania – a Madrid/Lisbon sleeper service which used a mix of freight lines and passenger lines for a more-direct route across the border (near Guarda). The service was cancelled during COVID, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed for a relaunch and an ear close to the ground on any news.
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