"From the assessment we made, the trains will be bigger, they will carry more passengers, they will be faster, they will make more trips, and the expectation is that a ticket could cost around 25 euros on the Porto-Lisbon connection, which compares with the current around 40 [euros] on the Alfa [Pendular]", IP vice-president Carlos Fernandes told journalists in Porto today.

Speaking on the sidelines of the presentation of the Campanhã Urbanization Plan (PUC), which took place today at Porto City Hall, he highlighted the "reduction in time from around three hours to one hour and fifteen", compared to the current train service.

"We will certainly have many different prices. When I talk about 25 euros on average, it means that we will have cheaper tickets, more expensive tickets, it depends on when they are purchased, a bit like buses", he stressed.

"Today, more than 100 million people make this trip by car, more than a million make it by plane, and we want to bring some of these people to the train, offering a much more competitive service", he highlighted.

The high-speed line should connect the country's two main cities in around one hour and 15 minutes, with possible stops in Gaia, Aveiro, Coimbra and Leiria.

The first phase (Porto - Soure) should be ready in 2030, with the possibility of connection to the Northern Line and immediately shortening travel time, and the second phase (Soure - Carregado) is expected to be completed in 2032, with connection to Lisbon later, but ensured via quadrupling the Northern Line.

It is planned to carry out 60 services per day and per direction, of which 17 will be direct, nine with stops in intermediate cities (Leiria, Coimbra, Aveiro and Gaia), and 34 mixed services (connecting to the conventional network).

The project plans to transport 16 million passengers per year on the new line and the Northern Line, of which around one million currently make that trip by plane.

At the same time, a connection from Porto to Vigo, in Galicia (Spain), is also being designed, with stations at Francisco Sá Carneiro airport, Braga and Valença (district of Viana do Castelo).