Medway will reopen this Portugal-Germany line after ten years 18/10/22
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Medway will launch a new rail connection between Portugal and Germany. Vasco da Gama is the name of the train that, in the first quarter of 2023, is expected to start running the line after a ten-year-long break.
Medway will take care of traction operations on the Iberian Peninsula. Transit time is expected to revolve around 72 hours, with one weekly roundtrip scheduled so far. The destination of the train in Germany will be Stuttgart, in southwestern Germany.
Medway will traction the train from Portugal up to Irun, on the Atlantic border between Spain and France. The partner that will traction the train for the rest of the route has not been revealed yet. After cancelations in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the beginning of next year will finally mark the reconnection between Germany and Portugal.
A decade-long hiatus
Up until 2012, DB Schenker was running a service between Hannover, in Germany, and Pampilhosa de Serra, in central Portugal. The main user of this service was the rental car company AutoEurope. The AutoEurope service was interrupted because of issues encountered when crossing the French border.