The inaugural journey of the Railway in Portugal dates back to the 28th October 1856. At the beginning of the 20th century several public and private companies coexisted, which have been merged into the Companhia dos Caminhos de Ferro Portugueses in 1951. The Company was nationalized in 1975 and renamed CP - Comboios de Portugal, E.P.E. since July 2009. .

After the restructuring of the rail sector, which freed the Company from infrastructure management, CP can now concentrate its activities on passenger and freight transport and assume a new culture highly focused on the market and service quality, and thus adapt its services to offer customers the desired quality.

Besides Suburban Trains operating in the cities of Lisboa and Porto, the Portuguese Railways offer the following long distance services:

1 INTERNATIONAL TRAINS
The daily international trains, namely:

• Lusitânia between Lisboa and Madrid
• Sud Express between Lisboa and Hendaye, with TGV connections to Paris.
• Porto – Vigo Train ( twice a day)

2. ALFA PENDULAR
This tilting service combines train safety with ease and comfort at all levels, offering you the ideal conditions for taking full advantage of the trip duration, thus being the preferred option for both business and leisure travel. Meeting the highest quality standards, Alfa Pendular is CP’s top service for daily connections between:

• Lisboa-Porto-Braga
• Porto-Lisboa-Faro

3 INTERCITY
The Intercity Service links all the main cities of the Country (about 60) to Lisboa and Porto.
The timetable is planned in such a way that trains arrive at one of the cities relatively early and return to the city of departure at the end of the day, allowing for the longest possible one-day stay.
The price of the Intercity Service is quite competitive with the other transport modes, attracting about 2 million travellers a year.

Intercity Trains run on the following routes:

• Lisboa-Porto-Guimarães
• Lisboa-Porto
• Lisboa-Guarda
• Lisboa-C. Branco- Covilhã
• Lisboa-Faro
• Lisboa-Évora
• Lisboa - Beja

4 REGIONAL AND INTERREGIONAL TRAINS Characterized by a more comprehensive offer and stopping at all or almost all the stations, regional trains ensure the connection to faster and higher category long distance trains, thus interconnecting practically all urban centres of the rail network.

In Portugal smoking is not allowed inside the trains.

www.cp.pt

InterRail and Eurail passes are not valid on the following trains:

• Fertagus trains (Lisbon - Setúbal trains)

In general, InterRail and Eurail passes are also not valid on :

• Car transporting trains
• Chartered trains (Ski, Pilgrimage, etc)
• Private steam trains