Beneath Cais do Sodré, the Linha Circular Breaks Ground

Shortly before ten on the night of 9 January, the last Cascais-line train eased out of Cais do Sodré and the platform fell quiet for a reason the station had never known. Below the concourse, crews pressed ahead with a new Metro tunnel—one that will thread beneath the rail tracks to connect a future Santos station to the existing interchange above.

This is the Linha Circular finally breaking ground where it counts. The works form part of the Rato–Cais do Sodré extension, the southern stretch that will complete Lisbon’s long-promised circular Metro loop—and the complexity of the site demanded a rare overnight choreography between three transport operators.

Metropolitano de Lisboa, CP–Comboios de Portugal, and Infraestruturas de Portugal announced the coordinated suppression of all Cascais-line services between Cais do Sodré and Algés from late on 9 January through the early hours of the following day. Trains from Cascais terminated at Algés; departures from Cais do Sodré were cancelled outright. Replacement buses, equipped with wheelchair ramps and clearly marked, shuttled passengers along Avenida 24 de Julho and Avenida da Índia, stopping at Santos, Alcântara-Mar, Belém, and Algés. Service between Oeiras and Cascais ran normally, and Metro trains across the existing network were unaffected.

For commuters who have followed the Linha Circular through years of studies, consultations, and ministerial pledges, the brief disruption carried an unfamiliar flavour: progress you can believe in. Somewhere beneath the station, concrete is setting, track is being relaid, and the circle is, at last, closing.

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