The role of railway for sustainable mobility in Algarve, Portugal

The railway line of Algarve in southern Portugal wasbuilt between the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Althoughthe line has driven the development of the region at the time, now it is notadjusted to the... [ view full abstract ]

The railway line of Algarve in southern Portugal wasbuilt between the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Althoughthe line has driven the development of the region at the time, now it is notadjusted to the needs of the population and the region; the stations areremoved from some of the main tourist areas and other major traffic nexus.Public transportation modes are not well linked to each other, so private caris the main transportation means. Car traffic is the largest energy consumerand air polluter, including greenhouse gas emissions. Inter-modal publictransport is crucial to fostering more sustainable mobility in urban areas. Thegoal of this research was to analyze the effects of redevelopment of theAlgarve railway and the role it may have in the development model for theregion. Three topics of research are reported: an analysis of current shortcomingsof the system, based on historical data and a survey to the municipalities; thedevelopment of a model to refit the old railway; and an analysis of effects ofthe proposed model on sustainability indicators in the region. The simulationscarried out on various railway-refitting scenarios indicate a qualitativeimprovement of sustainable development indicators. Better rail service willincrease quality, reliability and efficiency in regional mobility, along withan incentive for better land use management. Even modest investments in therailway will cause significant improvements in air quality, road congestion,road safety and accidents, noise and CO₂ emissions. Conservativebest-case scenarios suggest reductions of up to 24% in overall transport-relatedCO₂ emissions in the region, plus interesting results in otherenvironmental and socio-economic indicators. In short, a shift to rail willcontribute significantly to a more sustainable development of the region.

Keywords: Algarve Railway Line; railway mobility; Algarve; Sustainable mobility