The woman had been walking back to Lagos from Meia Praia beach when she was struck by the train as she crossed the tracks on a pedestrian crossing.
The incident happened on Sunday morning at around 10.20am, and temporarily halted circulation of trains on the track between Lagos and Portimão.
According to newspaper Correio da Manhã, passersby at the spot and the train driver both tried to get the woman’s attention, but she failed to realise the locomotive was speeding towards her.
The report said she would have been killed almost instantly, and her body was taken for forensic autopsy.
In related news, a day later, in Albufeira, some 38 kilometres from Lagos, a British national was killed in the early hours of Monday morning after a hit-and-run at a pedestrian crossing on the main avenue in Albufeira, the police said.
The 54-year-old British citizen, who was with his son, aged 22, was taken to the Albufeira health centre, but could not be saved.
The driver, allegedly a 25-year-old French national who was driving while under the influence of alcohol, abandoned the vehicle but was tracked down and detained by the police. He was taken into custody. The Public Prosecutor has launched an inquiry to determine whether the driver could be held accountable for the crime of manslaughter.
This was the second deadly accident involving pedestrians on Albufeira’s Avenida dos Descobrimentos in just 24 hours.
The day before, Sunday, an 80-year-old woman was killed after being hit by a van near the Dolphins roundabout.
The elderly woman was seriously hurt and succumbed to her injuries at the spot despite local firefighters and INEM paramedics’ best efforts to revive her.
The incident happened just before 7.30am Sunday morning.
Her body was also taken to the Legal Medicine Bureau in Portimão for autopsy.
The road was completely closed down for much of Sunday morning because of the accident, the circumstances of which are being investigated by GNR police.
Since the beginning of the year and until 7 May, the National Road Safety Authority (ANSR) has registered 3,060 accidents on Portugal’s roads, which is up 27 on last year’s figures.
This year’s accidents have caused nine fatalities (one less than in 2017), and 51 serious injuries (down 11 on the same period of last year.).