The tramways of Portugal

By Erik Boone, Howard Shakespeare

The railway era came late to Portugal ; in 1844 a company (Cia das Obras Publicas) was awarded the authority to build a line from Lisboa to the Spanish frontier. Political troubles delayed the venture until 1852, and the first passenger line in Portugal did not open until 1856 and then for only some 20 km in the required direction. However, the first tracks for local industrial use were laid somewhat earlier, in 1853. In 1858 the Caminho de Ferrro do Sul de Tejo was awarded the concession for a line from Barreiro, on the south bank of the Tejo, opposite Lisboa, west to Setubal and east to Vendas Novas, Evora and Beja. These lines were built on the standard European gauge, but in 1859 it was decided to harmonise with the broader Spanish gauge, and existing lines were adjusted. In that same year of 1859 the Companhia Real dos Caminhos de Ferro Portugueses (which later lost the ‘real’) was formed, and was granted concessions for two lines. These were, firstly, from Lisboa north to Coimbra, Aveiro and Porto, and, secondly, branching off the first at Entroncamento to the Spanish frontier at Elvas, to link with the expanding Spanish network at Badajoz. The frontier was reached in 1864, but construction to the north was very slow, and services to Porto started only in 1877. The state built lines in the northern Minho/Douro area around 1869.

The Portuguese system did not then expand significantly until the 1870s/1880s, when a number of new lines were constructed in various parts of the country, notably the Douro valley inland from Porto, the centre around Coimbra, Lisboa and the lower Tejo, and lines running south to the Algarve, linking at several points with Spanish lines. Perhaps the most important of the new lines was that of the Cia. Dos Caminhos de Ferro da Beira Alta, built by the Soc. Financière de Paris as a direct Lisboa – Paris route, to link with the Spanish system through to Salamanca, Burgos and the French border, and at the same time a Porto-Madrid link.

Further lines continued to be built until the 1920s,and the first electrified line (Lisboa-Cascais) opened in 1926 ; in that same year the C.F.P. leased the state-owned lines, giving it most of the country’s broad-gauge network. A semi-official Portuguese publication has stated that the majority of lines were technically mediocre and financially fragile. Not surprisingly, there was a tendency for small companies to get into financial trouble, and be absorbed into larger ones, either existing or created for the purpose. On that basis the Cia. Nacional incorporated the metre-gauge lines in the north-eastern Tras os Montes province, and the ‘Norte’ similar lines in the Porto district. However, even the giant (by local standards) Caminhos de Ferro Portugueses was declaired by the Tribual de Commercio in 1893 to be in a state of cessation of payments, and completely reorganised. A similar situation erose in 1927, when the company was ordered to meet its French obligations in gold francs, rather tan depreciated paper francs ; a further reorganisation was required, and closer state control was then introduced.

In 1951 the operation of all lines (including the state-owned lines but excluding the Cascais line) was formally incorporated into the C.F.P., which, however, was nationalised in 1975 (as the present C..P.), and the Cascais line was incorporated in 1978.

Referencebook : Reference catalogue of the bonds & shares of railway & tramway companies in Spain & Portugal, Erik Boone & Howard Shakespeare, 1990.

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