Using trains to help get around Portugal has become easier thanks to national rail firm Comboios de Portugal (CP).
Bikes on the line? Abandoned section of railway track east of Evora
Until earlier this year, unless you could fit them into a suitcase, bicycles were not allowed on most intercity trains – which meant the rail lines from Lisbon to Évora and Faro were out of bounds to cyclists wanting to shorten their journey.
Since March 2018, though, CP says there will be two spaces for bikes in each 2nd class carriages on all intercity trains – for more details see the bike transport section on the CP website.
For more information about trains and taking bikes on planes to Portugal – see the Transport page in the Planning section.
In a separate development, there are also plans for a new passenger link – hopefully allowing bikes as well – between Évora and Elvas, with an onward link to the border with Spain.
Work on this €509 million project is due to begin in March 2019. For more details about the project click here.
Bicycle assembly point at Faro airport
It’s also good to see that Portuguese airports have now introduced dedicated areas where anyone flying in with a bike has somewhere to get it ready for taking out on the road. Assembly areas like the one pictured can now be found in Faro, Lisbon and Porto airports.
Now, to really help turn Portugal into a mecca for cyclists, we just need some of the many abandoned railway lines that criss-cross the country to be turned into proper cycle routes. If that happened, Portugal could really open up a major new tourism section. See this blog post from February last year for more on this.
