The Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, Pedro Nuno Santos, inaugurated this Thursday the renewed Arco wagonsacquired from Spain and which will circulate along the Miño line, with the aim of building “an entirely Portuguese train” in the future.
“We will continue to have an entirely Portuguese convoy. We will arrive there. Only a country that aspires, that dreams, that does, that he achieves and that he respects his people is that one day he may be rich“, said the official at the Valença train station, in the Viana do Castelo district.
Pedro Nuno Santos was speaking at the inauguration of the Arco wagons, bought from the Spanish company Renfe two years ago, which were recovered in the CP – Comboios de Portugal workshops in Guifões, Matosinhos (Oporto district).
The minister recalled that the remodeling of the Arco wagons included about 95% of the materials and technologies manufactured in Portugalemphasizing that “in a country that is not rich, that’s how you work”.
“It is new with our workers, with our companies, with Portuguese companies. 95% of what is here, in each of these wagons, is manufactured in Portugal, by more than five dozen Portuguese companies”, explained Pedro Nuno Santos.
The socialist has also said that the Government’s concern is “mobility”, to achieve “remove cars” from Portuguese roads and “contribute to improving the environment”e” in Portugal.
At the inauguration of the carriages, which was followed by a journey between Valença and Viana do Castelo, several mayors from Alto Minho and the North were also present, as well as the acting president of the CP, Pedro Moreira.
The person in charge of the railway company said that the wagons are and are “new”, pointing out that when they were bought in Spain they were called “junk”.
Pedro Moreira said that the electrification of the Minho line and the use of Intercidades wagons, to this day, “allowed to significantly improve the conditions of service“, leading to a 23% increase in demand between the first half of 2019 and this year.
The mayor of Valença, José Manuel Carpinteira, asked for a reduction in the price of the subscription to travel on the Minho line, “to encourage the use and use of the train“, and also “that there are more frequent trains between Vigo and Porto, but at least between Valença and Viana”.
The Arco wagons, inaugurated this Thursday, can travel at 200 kilometers per hour (km/h), have USB sockets to charge electronic devices, LED lighting, said the president of CP, who also mentioned that a wagon “has bike racks“, up to eight, and even “an area with sofas, ideal for transporting groups of people”.
On July 14, the Instituto da Mobilidade e dos Transportes (IMT) authorized the entry into passenger service of CP — Comboios de Portugal of the Arco cars acquired from the Spanish company Renfe, after being remodeled in Portugal.
In 2020, CP bought 51 wagons from the Spanish company Renfe for 1.65 million euros, with the aim of requalifying them at the Guifões workshops, in Matosinhos, in the Porto district.
CP reopened the workshops in January 2020, with the aim of guaranteeing the maintenance of the rolling stock that is at the service of CP, recovery of what was stopped and modernization of trains, after they closed in 2011.
Source: Observadora
