The report details this failing within the scope of the Atlantic Corridor, with the lack of any railway running the 91 km distance between Évora and Caia forcing a long detour for goods traffic.
The study identifies a total of 76 such projects in Portugal across the rail, road, maritime, port and airport infrastructures with 58 due for correction prior to 2020.
Brussels put the total investment as between €5 billion and €7 billion but that priority projects with clear and immediate returns amounted to investment of €2.3 billion, including the €921 million bill for completing the Évora-Caia rail connection.
The report also identified the restrictions on long cargo goods trains, thereby undermining the competitiveness of rail freight, with Portuguese ports not equipped to deal with an increase in cargo train lengths.
The document also called on the Iberian countries to get their act together and ensure compatibility in rail gauges between their two systems as well as improving their coordination over road building and port and airport expansion projects.