Politics 17 July 2026

The Corgo railway line could come back — Portugal's parliament wants trains again between Régua and Chaves

Portugal's parliament approved resolutions from Chega, Livre, BE and PCP recommending the full reopening of the Corgo line to Vila Real and Chaves. Not binding — but nobody voted against.

The Corgo railway line is back on Portugal’s political map: parliament this Friday approved a set of resolutions recommending that the government fully reopen the railway that once linked Régua to Vila Real and Chaves, closed for more than fifteen years. The initiatives came from parties that rarely vote together — Chega, Livre, the Left Bloc and the Communists — and passed with differing tallies, but with one telling detail: not a single party voted against.

Trás-os-Montes is today one of the largest regions in the country without a train. Anyone living in Vila Real or Chaves who wants to catch one has to travel down to Régua, in the Douro valley — and that’s precisely the gap the resolutions want fixed, restoring a link that climbed the Corgo valley for a century.

What did parliament approve on the Corgo line?

Recommendations, not obligations: the resolutions aren’t binding — they work as a political message telling the government to study and fund the reopening. Even so, the signal is unusual: four parties from opposite ends of the spectrum pulling on the same file, with zero votes against, in a chamber where the government governs at the opposition’s mercy. The texts are available on the Portuguese parliament’s website.

The timing isn’t innocent either: Portugal is debating territorial cohesion while rail money is concentrated on the Lisbon-Porto high-speed line. A narrow-gauge regional line doesn’t make headlines — but for the northern interior, getting a train back would be one of the most concrete things politics could deliver.

If the government picks up the recommendation, the road is still long: studies, budgets, construction. But after years in which the Corgo only surfaced on anniversaries of its closure, watching the whole parliament point the same way is news in itself.

By Tomás Vasconcelos

Image: Nuno Morão from Portugal / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

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