The July 2026 announcement says the airport will be 20 minutes from central Lisbon by train, on a dedicated link through the Third Tagus Crossing, a new road-rail bridge between Chelas and Lavradio. The Lisbon–Airport line is to open in 2034, with a station of four tracks and three platforms and direct connections to long-distance services. About 20 million passengers a year are expected to use it.
Proposed access links (schematic)
Schematic, not to scale. No alignment has been approved or published; nothing here shows a route.
- Central Lisbon / Chelas
- Third Tagus Crossing — proposed road-rail bridge
- Barreiro / Lavradio
- Dedicated rail link (proposed) · about 20 minutes · target 2034
- Airport station (4 tracks, 3 platforms, proposed)
Proposed road schemes · 250 km new · more than 50 km upgraded
- EN4 · EN10 · EN119 → airport links
- A33 → A12 / A13
- IC13: airport – Ponte de Sor – Alter do Chão
- EN118 dualling · EN119 upgrade
Getting to the airport: the proposed numbers
- about 20 minutesby train to central Lisbon (proposed)Status: Officially proposed
- 20 million passengers a yearrail passengers a year (estimate)Status: Target / forecast
- 250 kmof new roads proposedStatus: Officially proposed
- more than 50 kmof existing roads upgradedStatus: Officially proposed
Road traffic expected each day · 65,000 light vehicles · about 2,000 heavy vehicles
Each icon = 1,000 vehicles a day. Red: heavy goods vehicles.
Part of something bigger
Infraestruturas de Portugal presents the crossing as part of the Lisbon–Madrid high-speed line, which also includes rail access to the airport and a station for conventional and high-speed trains. The Government has asked IP to bring forward the studies to deliver Lisbon–Madrid in 2034, with a journey of about three hours.
Illustration — not to scale, not the airport design
A train on a viaduct over salt marsh. The airport rail link is proposed; no route has been approved.
Illustration: Luís de Camões Airport Observatory (original work).
What ‘about 20 minutes’ means
It is an advertised journey time for a line that does not exist yet. The sources do not specify the city-centre terminus. The observatory therefore records it as ‘officially proposed’, not as a service.
Two calendars
The rail target (2034) is a year before the airport’s ‘from 2035’. They are different projects with different approvals and financing, and nothing in the sources guarantees that they will be ready together.
On the map
We mark Chelas and Lavradio as named endpoints of a proposed corridor. We draw no line between them, because no approved alignment has been published.