I took the Alfa Pendular from Aveiro to Lisbon in October 2022. We were in first class and my experience was wonderful. The train was on time. Everything went smoothly. It seemed very fast to me. Plus, in first class, there was a trolley so you could purchase lunch right at your seat. Extremely pleasant experience and would ride that route again.

Actually the problem isn’t the AP, in fact it is the traffic due to the saturation of trains on the Northern Line (Lisbon - Porto). So the AP is running on the same line as Regionals, InterCities and Suburban trains, and of course sometimes the AP’s march is hindered because of the other trains. What should be done (and we are planning to do as you know) is to build a dedicated line to the AP.

Just got back from Portugal and only used the AP on one leg of our trip- from Algarve to Porto . It very seldom hit its maximum speed , however it was only about 8 minutes late. Everything else was ok except for the wifi. Leaving Porto we took the IC ( inter city) train it was cheaper and since we are seniors the senior discount gave us 1st class at a reasonable price. Overall very comfortable and although late by about 12 minutes it was enjoyable. However I agree with his point on the buses - we used one from Oriente station because we missed our train . It turns out it was just as comfortable and took us closer to the tourist centre than the train would have. Tip : make sure you have a 50 cent/ euro coin as they charge for the on bus toilet. Last point:I can confirm everything he said about Oriente station- can’t hear the announcement; can’t find posting of schedules or platform numbers until about 8 minutes before train time and what is most disappointing is that there are no personnel or information counter you can approach with questions. If it is there we couldn’t find it in 15 minutes of looking.

Thanks for this great review! I am planning a trip to Portugal next year and was researching the best way to get from Lisbon to Porto. I came across this train and asked myself precisely whether it would make a significant difference compared to the bus. Now I know!

@JackRoaming

8 ай бұрын

Glad it was helpful!

Fantastic content as always! I can also imagine how much work goes into a review like this. Let's give Jack some appreciation for that!

@JackRoaming

8 ай бұрын

Thanks!

Greetings! Alfa Pendular trains do usually get up to 220km/h in some parts of the line, since you didn't get past 120km/h it might be a sign that the train ATP system (CONVEL) had a failure. Best Regards!

@JackRoaming

8 ай бұрын

Thanks! As I mentioned, the train did get up to around 210 km/h between Aveiro and Porto, but that was the only stretch. Throughout the rest of the journey, it didn't get past 120 km/h. Cheers!

Thank you for this review, very well done!

@JackRoaming

8 ай бұрын

Thanks a lot!

I’ve been on an Alfa pendular train from Coimbra to Faro and back with no issues or delays. Our experiences couldn’t be more different, maybe I was really lucky…

@JackRoaming

7 ай бұрын

Yes. As I mentioned, I couldn't find any official delay statistics, so I don't know if this is very common or if I was just very unlucky.

@novaialm2832

3 ай бұрын

​@@JackRoaming it depends, like i said in my own comment, I took it at morning 7 o'clock, and we weren't late, and we were goin 220 km/h most of the journey, but at night there is some traffic because of the urban routes at lisbon

@JackRoaming

3 ай бұрын

@@novaialm2832 Interesting!

I took the alfa pendular once at 7:00h, it was on schedule, and hit its maximum seped (220 km/h) since there were no trains at the moarning, I think it wad realy good tbh, and plus u can get a ticket of as low as 14€ in second class if u book the ticket at least 1 month becore your trip

I took the AP in 2015 and was quite impressed, they even had dinner service you could pay for, which was quite nice. Guess since then it has gone down hill unfortunately.

@JackRoaming

7 ай бұрын

Interesting. No more dinner service offered as of now.

in fact, Alfa Pendular only runs at 220km/h at about 23% of the North Line. Pretty good train but operating in old lines :/

I am curious, does the train run overnight and is your train ride to Porto 60 to 75% full?

I noticed you switched seats at around 7:00. Do you know how this seat compares to the other seat you were sitting in, in terms of comfort/legroom? Thanks

@JackRoaming

4 ай бұрын

They are all the same.

Last time I took the Alfa pendular it was more than 2 hours delayed. Here in Portugal we can also take the inter cities, that is cheaper and just few minutes slower

THANK YOU.

Just came back form Portugal and used CP network extensively. Functionality: I agree. Except a couple of times, the trains were always late. With advance purchase, I only paid around 17 euros for a ticket from Lisboa to Porto. So there is more economical option for same train. Disagree on the poor screen display at station. I had no issue what so ever to find out what platform I needed to be on.

@JackRoaming

4 ай бұрын

Thanks for your input! They probably fixed the screens since I filmed this a few months ago.

@EbonyMMoody

4 ай бұрын

Hi ! Where did you buy your tickets in advance ? Was it a site or app? Can you share? I need tickets from Lisbon to Porto and can’t find much info 😊

and this is why as a portuguese, I always take either flixbus or rede-expressos buses in the Lisbon-Porto route. Is simply not worth to take the train, is overpriced and can be late.

🚅 don't you all enjoy railroad 🚈 trams, trains etc are just so cool 🚞 take a ride in my ''transportation'' folder, (folder 2) :)

Does Portugal have FlixBus traveling the same route?

@JackRoaming

8 ай бұрын

Yes. But many other companies aswell.

@hmikas6698

8 ай бұрын

flixbus takes stops in most of major cities, surely the best travel option imo

I guess you are better off with intercidades train remember combining freight and passenger trains causes delays like Amtrak and via rail Canada

👍🏽 ❤️🇱🇨!!! #ThankYou

😂thanks

Bro your in Portugal and complaining about a 10 mins delay. They have a maniana culture, so your lucky its 10 mins late.😅

@Lee1517

3 ай бұрын

Good review though overall

@desc3451

Ай бұрын

Has he ever taken German ICE trains?😂😂

@JamesKeller1993

Ай бұрын

Bro the delay was 50 minutes not 10...Maybe watch the video before writing a comment. And yes, he has an ICE video.

@Lee1517

Ай бұрын

​@JamesKeller1993 he said the train was delayed on his journey, I suppose you missed that part. Not the same as every journey.