Entroncamento, Santarém, May 21, 2024 (Lusa) -- The Secretary of State for Infrastructure today defended as necessary the "focus on the execution" of the investment plan assumed by Portugal, which "privileges the railway mode", and to define an "integrated vision for logistics, intermodal" in the transport sector.

"We need to ensure that we will execute everything we committed to do, there is a very ambitious investment plan, which privileges the railway mode, the decarbonization of transport is a priority for the country, and we have to execute them", said today to Lusa the Secretary of State for Infrastructure, Hugo Espírito Santo, in Entroncamento (Santarém), where he presided over the opening of the Portugal Railway Summit.

In its fifth edition, the second consecutive in the city of trains, the initiative of PFP - Portuguese Railway Platform, Railway Cluster, brings together for two days, at the National Railway Museum, four hundred specialists, industry leaders and professionals from the railway sector to discuss the latest advances, challenges and opportunities for the railway.

In his speech, the minister addressed the strategies and objectives of the National Investment Plan (PNI) for the 2021-2030 time horizon, focusing on the national high-speed project, where he highlighted the use of the "multipurpose Iberian gauge" and the importance of "interoperability with the conventional network", along with the third crossing over the Tagus River, having highlighted the "focus on execution", the "participation of private companies", and the "promotion of intermodality".

To Lusa, the Secretary of State said that the "objective of carbon neutrality continues to be the great desideratum and one of the touchstones of what is the strategy for the railway" in Portugal, having noted the importance of an "integrated vision for logistics" in the transport sector.

"The transport of goods is critical. We have a very high prevalence of heavy road freight transport in Portugal, this has environmental implications and it is important to define a vision for national logistics, intermodal, which includes ports, railways, roads and the aviation sector itself, an integrated vision that does not exist and that we will have to develop quickly", defended Hugo Espírito Santo.

Questioned about today's statements by the Portuguese Association of Railway Companies (APEF), which indicated that rail freight transport fell by 10% until April and attributed the responsibility to the public incentives of recent years to the road and the transport of goods, namely through the reduction of toll rates on roads, the minister considered the criticisms "untimely" and said that "a lot is being done" and that funds will be released for the railway sector.

"The first step to achieve rail freight transport is to have infrastructure. That's what we're doing", he said, noting that there must be the "notion that infrastructure takes time", and assured that the government will "now release a set of funds combined in a previous resolution of the Council of Ministers".

Regarding the APEF's observation that tolls for the use of the railway (Usage Fee charged by the State/Infraestruturas de Portugal) were increased by more than 20% in the last year, in contrast to the reduction in the tax burden on the road applied to fossil fuels without any support or reduction being attributed to the costs of electricity and fuels used in the railway, the Secretary of State said that "the increase in the usage fee this year will be 3%", which, "in an inflationary context" is "extremely reasonable", having reiterated the support to be granted.

"There is a lot that is being done and I find the criticisms a bit untimely, from that point of view, and our goal is to have all private parties involved in this process of railway development in Portugal", he concluded.

Read Also: Rail freight transport falls by 10% until April, APEF reported (Portuguese version)