Transport in Spain is characterised by a network of roads, railways, trams, air routes, and ports. Its geographic location makes it an important link between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Major forms of transit generally radiate from the capital, Madrid, located in the centre of the country, to link with the capitals of the autonomous communities.
Transport in Portugal is diversified. Portugal has a 68,732 km (42,708 mi) network of roads, of which almost 3,000 km (1,864 mi) are part of a 44 motorways system. Brisa is the largest highway management concessionaire. With 89,015 km2, Continental Portugal has 4 international airports located near Lisbon, Porto, Faro and Beja. The national railway system service is provided by Comboios de Portugal. The major seaports are located in Leixões, Aveiro, Figueira da Foz, Lisbon, Setúbal, Sines and Faro.
Rail transport in Spain operates on four rail gauges and services are operated by a variety of private and public operators. Total railway length in 2020 was 15,489 km. The Spanish high-speed rail network is the longest HSR network in Europe with 3,966 km and the second longest in the world, after China's.
The Sud Express was an overnight passenger train connecting Paris with Lisbon and Madrid, and which originally was operated by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits and ran north of Paris to Calais. After 1994, the Sud Express connected Lisboa with Hendaye, a French commune on the Franco-Spanish border. In 1957, Reuters called it "one of Europe's fastest and most famous trains".
Rail transport in Romania goes back to the Austrian Empire, when in 1857 the line between Timișoara and Szeged opened. The first railway line on territory of the Kingdom of Romania opened in 1869. It linked Bucharest and Giurgiu. Electrification of the Romanian railway network was expedited during the 1950s and 1960s while the country was under a communist regime.
Alfa Pendular is the name of the flagship Pendolino high-speed tilting train of Portuguese state railway company CP. It connects the cities of Guimarães, Braga, Porto, Aveiro, Coimbra, Santarém, Lisbon, Albufeira and Faro, among others at speeds of up to 220 km/h.
REFER, Rede Ferroviária Nacional, EP was the Portuguese rail infrastructure manager. It was a state-owned company and was created to manage the Portuguese rail infrastructure, previously under control of CP, which became exclusively a train service operator.
CP — Comboios de Portugal, EPE is a state-owned company which operates passenger trains in Portugal. Prior to June 2009, CP stood for Caminhos de Ferro Portugueses although the company has been using its current designation as a brand name since 2004.
The Alfa Pendular network, with top speeds of 220 km/h connects much of Portugal. In February 2009, the government of Portugal announced plans to build a high-speed rail line from Lisbon to Madrid; this plan was cancelled in March 2012 amidst a bailout programme of financial assistance to the Portuguese Republic. The project was valued at €7.8 billion and the government had claimed it would create 100,000 jobs. The line would link to Spain's Southwest Corridor.
Turkey has a state-owned railway system built to standard gauge which falls under the remit of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure. The primary rail carrier is the Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Devlet Demiryolları (TCDD) which is responsible for all long-distance and cross-border freight and passenger trains. A number of other companies operate suburban passenger trains in urban conurbations.
The CP Urban Services network is the commuter train network of Metropolitan Lisbon and Metropolitan Porto, Portugal. It is a Comboios de Portugal company. It connects the city centers with the suburbs.
The history of rail transport in Spain begins in the 19th century. In 1848, a railway line between Barcelona and Mataró was inaugurated, although a line in Cuba connecting Havana and Bejucal had already opened in 1837. In 1852 the first narrow gauge line was built, in 1863 a line reached the Portuguese border. By 1864 the Madrid-Irun line had been opened, and the French border reached.
Iberian gauge is a track gauge of 1,668 mm, most extensively used by the railways of Spain and Portugal. A broad gauge, it is the second-widest gauge in regular use anywhere in the world, with only Indian gauge railways, 5 ft 6 in, being wider.
The history of rail transport in Portugal dates from 28 October 1856, when Portugal's first railway line was opened between Lisbon and Carregado: the Companhia dos Caminhos de Ferro Portugueses.
The Tâmega line(Linha do Tâmega) was a 1,000 mmmetre gauge railway line in northern Portugal. It closely followed the course of the Tâmega River. It closed in 2009.
The Sabor line(Linha do Sabor) was a 1,000 mmmetre gauge railway in north-east Portugal. It ran for nearly 106 km between Pocinho and Duas Igrejas, near Miranda do Douro. It closed in 1988.
Portugal formerly had several hundred kilometres of narrow-gauge railways, but by 2010 only two lines were still in operation – the Vouga line and the Metro de Mirandela. The lines were operated by Comboios de Portugal and maintained by REFER.
The Douro line is a 99-mile railway line in northern Portugal that runs from Ermesinde to the eastern terminus at Pocinho. The line runs close to the Douro River for much of its route, offering scenic views of the river and valley. Passenger trains are operated by Comboios de Portugal (CP) and run between Porto São Bento and Pocinho, taking 3 hours and 20 minutes. Freight trains operated by Medway also run on the line.
The Barca d'Alva–La Fuente de San Esteban railway is a closed Iberian gauge line which connected the Barca d'Alva railway station on the Douro line in northeastern Portugal to the Spanish railway network. Passenger and cargo trains operated from Porto to Salamanca from its opening in 1887 until its closure on the Spanish side in 1985, with the Portuguese side also subsequently truncated to Pocinho three years later.
Linha de Leixões, also known as Linha de Cintura do Porto, is a railway line in Portugal which connects the railway stations of Contumil in Porto on the Linha do Minho and Leixões, in Matosinhos, servicing the Port of Leixões. It is single track in Iberian gauge stretching over 18.9 km, equipped with EBICAB 700 control systems and RSC communications. The line was opened in 1938, and electrified in 1998. Passenger services ran until 1987 and from 2009 to 2011, otherwise the railway has remained open for cargo, transporting cargo in and out of the Port of Leixões.
