The Secretary of State for Mobility said today that the work to expand the Lisbon Metropolitan Red Line to Alcântara will begin in December 2025 and will also be allocated to the Violet Line.
Cristina Pinto Dias accompanies the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, Miguel Pinto Luz, who is being heard in parliament today, as part of the discussion on the State Budget for 2026 (OE2026), answering questions from deputies regarding the Lisbon Metro, who are in her portfolio.
“The Red Line will begin work in December 2025 and, by the way, the contract for the work on the Violet Line will also be awarded in December 2025”, announced Cristina Pinto Dias.
The amount needed to extend the Red Line, between Alcântara, passing through Campolide/Amoreiras, Campo de Ourique and Avenida Infante Santo, is 405 million euros, of which 357.5 million would originate from the PRR, however, the delay in starting the work led to the loss of part of the European funding.
The tender for the extension was won in 2023 and signed in December of the same year by the Mota-Engil consortium for a contractual price of around 321.9 million euros, but due to legal challenges from other competitors the process was delayed.
In March 2024, the contract ended up receiving prior approval from the Court of Auditors, but still had to wait for the decision of the Lisbon Administrative Court, following an action brought by one of the competitors.
In October of this year, the State Secretariat for Mobility said at the Infrastructure, Mobility and Housing Commission, in the Assembly of the Republic, that the work had not yet progressed to the ground due to the lack of the Environmental Compliance Report of the Execution Project (RECAPE) and authorization from the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority.
Currently, the Red Line is a circular line that connects São Sebastião and Aeroporto stations.
According to Cristina Pinto Dias, it will be in December 2025 that “the work on the future Violeta line” will be consigned, the new Odivelas/Loures Light Rail.
The Violet Line, 11.5 kilometers long, includes 17 stations: nine in the municipality of Loures (which will serve the parishes of Loures, Santo António dos Cavaleiros and Frielas, over a length of approximately 6.4 kilometers) and eight in the municipality of Odivelas (to serve the parishes of Póvoa de Santo Adrião and Olival de Basto, Odivelas, Ramada and Caneças), with a total length of around 5.1 kilometers.
The stations will have different types, 12 surface, three underground and two in trenches.
The first public tender for the Violet Line contract was launched on March 15, 2024 and resulted in the exclusion of all proposals presented by economic operators, as they exceeded the base price of the tender, on average by around 46%.
Last July, the Lisbon Metro announced that it had received four proposals within the scope of the competition for the construction of the Violet Line, which presented values between 598.8 and 716 million euros.
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