Portugal's competition watchdog wants CP's trains and drivers open to whoever wins the Cascais line
A study published on Thursday by the Autoridade da Concorrência warns that tenders to subcontract CP's suburban lines will only attract bidders if they guarantee access to rolling stock, depots and staff. The government's model is due in September.
The government wants private operators to run some of CP’s suburban lines, starting with the Cascais line into Lisbon. Portugal’s competition authority has looked at that plan and concluded, in a study released on Thursday, that the tender risks arriving with nobody in it unless it first solves a very unglamorous problem: a new entrant has no trains, no depots and nobody qualified to drive.
The recommendation is blunt. Tender procedures should secure effective, non-discriminatory access to the rolling stock required, and the regulator says it is crucial to consider measures guaranteeing access to CP’s maintenance facilities and services and to staff such as drivers, should the continuity of employment contracts not otherwise be protected.
Put plainly: no newcomer builds a fleet or trains drivers in time for a start date. Either it inherits them, or it does not bid.
What is actually on the table
The Cascais line is first in the queue because it runs isolated from the rest of the network, which makes separating it technically straightforward. Ministers have said the Sintra line could follow. Those are the two CP suburban services that turn a profit, which goes some way to explaining the order.
The model is due to be presented in September. From what is already known, the subconcessions will carry a six-year trial period, will sit inside the CP group and under the state company’s brand, and will include the new trains CP ordered from Alstom, arriving from 2029, for which the private operator will pay a rental. It is the same order that put CP at the centre of a contested high-speed tender.
The contract that ends in 2029
Behind all this sits the public service contract between the state and CP, which expires in 2029 and which the government wants to extend to 2034. From that point, European rules require an international tender for the public service concession.
The authority uses the study to warn that the extension should not be treated as settled, and recommends the government reassess what should remain inside CP’s contract if parts of the urban network move to other operators in the meantime. A contract that runs too long drifts away from market conditions, the regulator argues.
For anyone catching a train, nothing changes this week. What changes is the likelihood that the ticket you buy in 2030 is sold by a different company. The green rail pass for suburban services, which takes effect in September, applies regardless of who runs the line. All fourteen recommendations are set out in the Autoridade da Concorrência’s statement.
Photo: Rúdisicyon / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
