My train DISAPPEARED? A strange trip on Portugal's EXCELLENT Alfa Pendular high-speed trains
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ส.ค. 2024
- Follow me on Twitter / intercitysimon
Today, I'm showing you my varied experience of traveling with CP Comboios de Portugal, the Portuguese railway company, from Porto to Lisbon. It was an interesting ride as the train was missing from the departure board and the wrong train type showed up on the platform. So join me as we check out what it's like to travel with one of CP's excellent Alfa Pendular trains on an Intercity service from Porto to Lisbon.
Train type: CP 4000 Alfa Pendular
Route: Porto Campanhã to Lisboa Santa Apolónia
Train: IC 522
Distance: 336km
Journey time: 3h23m
Average speed: 99 km/h
Price: 22,5 euro
I am Portuguese, but I live in Estonia.
Both places struggle with the legacy of poor railways, broad gauge and years of neglect.
The thing is, while Estonia is actively working on building high speed rail and reactivating old railways nowadays, Portugal is closing railways and sticking to the railway line planned in the 1860s.
It's ridiculous to have our mainline, from the Galician border in the North to Lisbon so congested, just double tracked, and still as planned in the 1860s...
That's not to say that the rolling stock of the Alfa or Intercity trains is bad...
It's just that it's the best they can do.
The prices are ridiculous... 5x per km when compared with that of Spain and 1/2 the average speed.
You really should come to Portugal one of these days. Not to say thst you aren t right on some things but you are also wrong i many
@@MrMatavelhasI'm here right now.
I am a student in Estonia so I'm in Portugal my entire holidays. 😅
I'm not sure which part of what I said is not true.
The line is the same since the 1860s...
The service isn't bad but it's expensive per km in comparison to our neighbour, Spain, and other countries in Europe from personal experience.
It's also slow to the point where driving is basically worth it...
@realhawaii5o the biggest problem is actually that Portugal is planning to build new highspeed railway in IBERIAN GAUGE... its just really stupid when every other country in EU will build in normal gauge (1435 mm)... just look at Spain that changes Iberian Gauge to Standard Gauge on a lot of railways every year!
@@onmyway5922 yeah it's stupid.
Makes no sense to build new railways in Iberian gauge when the entire continent is standardising basically.
I have to say those trains are very nice, fast, slick and smooth. Very good trains.
About your suddent train change, that really happends a lot during the day and evening at a few routes, where the Intercity changes to an Alfa Pendular. But still, what a nice video.
I thought it happened a lot less frequent, thanks for watching :-)
@@Simon-Andersen well at least u get a free upgrade with more confort since the alfa pendular sits are better
As a fact i am Portuguese, it is true that if you are disabled you need to book the service in advance
Thanks for clarifying :D
As usual a very great review. I have noticed though, your bathroom review was very short. Good thing I didn't blink or else I would've missed it again 😅
Good review. Cheers! 🙌
Thanks :-)
Great video.👍🏻 Thanks.
Thanks for watching!
Excellent!
1:28 Bro what, that would make me stress so much and run around
Always good and informative. Greetings from port saint lucie, florida. Have you checked out Roamin' around with Roman! His train videos from Wisconsin usa are very good. He also shows trains in michigan and Minnesota.
Thanks for watching Jon, I'll have to check out roaming with roman :-)
Looks brand new
They keep them in good condition!
Nice vídeo. Was that recorded on a weekend! I ask this because that train only operates from Porto on a single day of the week (on the other days ir cames from further North; Valença do Minho and operates as train 730). CP does this stock change much often on weekends to harmonise train rotations. This Pendolino later was certainly used to operate a train from Lisbon to Braga (the 14:00 departures from Santa Apolónia).
Yes this was on a Sunday in February. Still wierd how the timetable was changed from the one on the ticket
@@Simon-Andersenthat change was que to engineering works between Vila Nova de Gaia and Espinho, and it's usual. On weekends, the section that I mentioned is usually operated as a single track. Hence the rescheduling
In the description you put it wrong. This is not IC 522, this is the AP 522.
IC is the intercity, and AP is the Alpha pendular!
AP services are numbered between 100 and 200. 500s are InterCity, no mater what stock is used.
No because this was planned to be an IC that was operated by an AP pendolino train the day I traveled!
Kunne du ikke angive de beløbet eller procentdelen på de rabatter du får? De priser du viser, hjælper mig ikke meget, da jeg ikke regner med at få ungdomsrabat som 61 årig 🙂
Jo det vil jeg gøre fremadrettet :-)
@@Simon-Andersen Tak. 🙂
Well,you passed through the ticket offices and you could have asked instead of going on a fishing expedition ;)
Sometime, these swaps happen to ensure stock inbalance. Much more rarely but the opposite also happens with Alfas being swaped with IC.
We Nordics like little social interaction 😅 and I was in good time anyway 😁 I'm sure some kind of timetable change was in place that day I wasn't aware of so likely the train diagrams were also changed
@Simon-Andersen I like you. You like living dangerously!
I suspect the regular timetable might have changed (otherwise, if it was merely a day change, the train number would also have changed, albeit still being familiars, to something like 20522)
PS - You should try Faro station one of these days, lots of mayehm and no such indicators.
Hi
Hello!
@@Simon-Andersen Hi I love your content were you to Czech trains? I think you were.
Windows too low for passengers standing at counter in cafe car.
Yes, it is one of the few flaws of the Alfa-Pendular. This train is similar to the Acela Service in the US. The cafe car of the intercity trains uses normal wide windows. th-cam.com/video/MkDrQb4Tk2M/w-d-xo.htmlsi=tCKzAanwYNZmUpPN
@@rogeriomonteiro760 Old Acela cafe car has big windows for viewing while standing or sitting in stool. New Acelas-in-waiting have reverted to small windows.
Cool