The capital increase was announced on Monday, the day that CP and its Spanish counterpart, RENFE, signed a cooperation agreement in Madrid that will allow the Portuguese company to rent four diesel trains and its first electrical train set from next year.
The move by CP is aimed at meeting pressing needs for rolling stock as it awaits a public tender process for the purchase of more compositions.
Spain is the only country in Europe from which Portugal can rent trains, since the two countries have a distance between their rails that is specific to Iberia. Portugal still uses diesel trains, because only about one third of its railway infrastructure is electrified.
Complaints about CP’s service have been multiplying recently, with the subject becoming a political football.
CP’s president, Carlos Gomes Nogueira, testified in parliament on Tuesday on MPs’ questions about the “degradation of material and service provided” by CP, in a hearing that was requested by the opposition Social Democrats.
On Thursday it was the turn of the minister for planning and infrastructure, Pedro Marques, to answer the committee’s questions about the state of Portugal’s railways.