The opening of Portugal’s new Évora–Caia line has slipped once again, this time to 2028, and the first casualty is already known. MSC has reportedly suspended the daily Medway freight service between the port of Sines and Seville, taking around 50,000 containers a year to a Spanish port instead.
“Unfortunately, we found out recently that it will no longer be in ’27, but in ’28”, Carlos Vasconcelos, CEO of Medway, told Portugues media SOL. “The client was not willing to wait that long and decided to suspend the service.” The client in question is MSC, which is also Medway’s shareholder.
The connection between Sines and Andalusia, which Medway launched in 2018, had already been piling up problems on both sides of the border. On the Portuguese side, the main bottleneck is the Vendas Novas line, where upgrade works were only awarded in December 2025, for €120 million and with a 48-month timeline. Restrictions linked to these works cost Medway 19 trains in a single week, Vasconcelos said. Without the new line, trains from Sines to Spain also have to make a 140-kilometre detour.
Theft and certification
On 16 January, Minister of Infrastructure Miguel Pinto Luz declared the works on the line completed and promised trains within a year. He now points to theft and vandalism of catenary, signalling and telecommunications equipment, which forced parts of the infrastructure to be rebuilt.
“Contracting independent external certification bodies has taken longer than expected, due to the scarcity of these entities in Portugal and the growing mobilisation of foreign companies for similar processes underway in Europe”, the minister explained. He did not confirm the 2028 date either. “The Government asked Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP) to reassess the calendar of the various certification and authorisation stages for the entry into service of the new Évora line, and it is premature to give a new date.”
In the meantime, international freight trains continue to use existing routes, namely the Leste line, Pinto Luz pointed out. The line from Entroncamento to Elvas is not electrified and makes for a longer journey.
A decade of missed deadlines
The Ferrovia 2020 programme, launched in 2016, expected the line to be completed by the end of 2021. That date then moved to 2023, to the end of 2025 and, in the Iberian strategy signed by Portugal and Spain with the European Commission in October 2025, to 2026. A year ago, the line was still due to open in mid-2026. Even the 2027 state budget proposal, submitted to parliament in October, still lists 2027 as the opening year.
The new line was designed to cut 140 kilometres from the route between Sines and the border and double capacity, opening up inland Spain to Portugal’s largest port. Sines could use the boost: its total throughput fell by 12% in 2025, although Terminal XXI set a monthly record of more than 189,000 TEU in July this year. However, winning back the lost volumes might prove harder than keeping them. “When you lose a client, a service, getting it back is more difficult, however much goodwill there is. An alternative routine is created”, Vasconcelos warned.