Alfa Pendular is the name of the flagship

Pendolino Pendolino (from Italian language, Italian "pendulum", and ''-ino,'' a diminutive suffix) is an Italian family of high-speed tilting trains (and non-tilting) used in Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland, the Czech Republic, ...

high-speed

tilting train A tilting train is a train that has a mechanism enabling increased speed on regular rail tracks. As a train (or other vehicle) rounds a curve at speed, objects inside the train experience centrifugal force. This can cause packages to slide about ...

of Portuguese state railway company

Comboios de Portugal CP — Comboios de Portugal, EPE (; ) is a state-owned company which operates passenger trains in Portugal. Prior to June 2009, CP stood for Caminhos de Ferro Portugueses (English: ''Portuguese Railways'') although the company has been using it ...

. Since the 1990's it connects the near-coastal and coastal cities of

Braga Braga (; ) is a cities of Portugal, city and a Municipalities of Portugal, municipality, capital of the northwestern Portugal, Portuguese Braga (district), district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality ...

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

, Aveiro,

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ), officially the City of Coimbra (), is a city and a concelho, municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2021 census was 140,796, in an area of . The fourth-largest agglomerated urban area in Po ...

, Santarém,

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

Albufeira Albufeira (, ), officially the City of Albufeira (), is a List of cities in Portugal, city and Concelho, municipality of Faro District in the Algarve region of southern Portugal. The population in 2021 was 44,158, in an area of . The city proper ...

, and Faro, spanning from North to South, at speeds of up to 220 km/h (135 mph). The trains were assembled in Portugal by

ADtranz Adtranz was a multi-national rail transportation equipment manufacturer with facilities concentrated in Europe and the US. The company, legally known as ABB Daimler-Benz Transportation, was created in 1996 as a joint venture between ABB and Daim ...

at the former

Sorefame Sorefame (an abbreviation of ''Sociedades Reunidas de Fabricações Metálicas'', meaning ''"Reunited Society of Metalwork Fabrications")'' was a Portugal, Portuguese manufacturer of railway rolling stock and industrial equipment, such as dam gat ...

works at

Amadora Amadora (), officially Amadora City (), is a List of cities in Portugal, city and concelho, municipality in the northwest of the Lisbon metropolitan area and 10 km from central Lisbon. The population in 2011 was 175,136, in an area of 23.78&nb ...

, based on contracting partnership between Fiat-Ferroviaria as the main contractor and ADtranz and

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...

as the main subcontractors. In 2017, the Alfa train fleet was upgraded with new interiors, livery, seating, and features such as Wi-Fi, plugs and chargers for electronic devices.

Description

The Alfa Pendular

high speed train High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail transport network utilising trains that run significantly faster than those of traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated railway track, tracks. While there is ...

is a six car

electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number o ...

(EMU), which is derived from, and closely resembles the Giugiaro designed Italian Fiat-Ferroviaria ETR 480

train. The bogies were redesigned to operate on Portugal's specific rails. There are 8

traction motors A traction motor is an electric motor used for propulsion of a vehicle, such as locomotives, electric or hydrogen vehicles, or electric multiple unit trains. Traction motors are used in electrically powered railway vehicles (electric multiple u ...

, installed on all but the two middle vehicles of the train, developing . This M-M-T-T-M-M arrangement spreads the weight of the train, giving it a weight of only per axle, which helps its cornering ability at high speed. During testing, a top speed of was reached close to Espinho in 1998.

Tilting technology

Its

technology, with a maximum tilt angle of 8°, allows the train to navigate curves at higher speeds than conventional trains. The combination of the resulting high cornering velocity and the tilting movement of the carriages helps ensure a comfortable ride for the passengers, although the jostle and sway compensating for track irregularities may cause "motion sickness" in those susceptible. The hydraulic tilting system is governed by two gyroscopes in the head cars. The curve is found on the base of the elevation of the external track. The use of this train did not require particular modifications to the existing rail network, but it is expensive in terms of maintenance of the rolling stock because of the complexity of the tilting system.

History

The Alfa Pendular service was officially launched in 1999, connecting Lisbon to Porto, replacing the previous Alfa service (provided by

locomotive A locomotive is a rail transport, rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, Push–pull train, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for ...

+ carriages type trains), on the same route since the 1980's. The introduction of the Alfa Pendular was considered one of the most important milestones in the development of rail transport in Portugal. Initially planned to link the country's two main cities,

and

, the pendulum train routes were expanded, and by 1996 they included the entire base network of the Portuguese railway system serving ''Intercidades'' (Intercity). An extensive axis linking the country from North to South was created between Braga, Porto, Lisbon, Setúbal, with connections to Alto-Minho, Douro-Litoral, Beiras, Alentejo-Litoral and the Algarve.MARTINS ''et al'', 1996:194 By 2004, the company Rede Ferroviária Nacional concluded its modernization projects for the

Minho Minho or Miño may refer to: People * Miño (surname) * Choi Min-ho, South Korean singer and actor known mononymously as Minho Places * Minho (river) or Miño, in Portugal and Spain Jamaica * Rio Minho, a river Portugal * Minho Province ...

and Sul lines and the Braga Branch, with the extension of Alfa Pendular services to

and Faro, as part of the ''Eixo Atlântico'' program.REIS ''et al'', 2006:202-203 On 20 May 2016, the Alfa Pendular service broke a new daily record, having transported 8,080 passengers in the 24 trains it operated that day — the second highest number of people transported in a day in 2016, having reached 7,557 passengers on 6 May. In 2017, the Alfa Pendular trains had transported over 26 million customers, and travelled a distance of more than 45 million kilometers. center, Side view, showing the carriages., 856x856px

Stations

The stations served by the Alfa Pendular are, from north to south:Comboios de Portugal > Alfa Pendular > Estações
/ref> *

* Famalicão *

Trofa Trofa () is a city and a municipality in the north of the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, from Porto. The population in 2021 was 38,548, in an area of . The city centre is formed by the parish Bougado (São Martinho e Santiago), which had 21 ...

* Porto-Campanhã *

Vila Nova de Gaia Vila Nova de Gaia (; ), or simply Gaia, is a city and a municipality in Porto District in Norte Region, Portugal, Norte Region, Portugal. It is located south of the city of Porto on the other side of the Douro River. The city proper had a populati ...

* Espinho * Aveiro *

-B * Pombal * Entroncamento * Santarém * Lisboa–Oriente * Lisboa–Santa Apolónia (off the lines from/to Faro) * Lisboa-Entrecampos * Pinhal Novo * * *

Loulé Loulé () is a city and Concelho, municipality in the region of Algarve, Faro District, district of Faro, Portugal. In 2021, the population of the entire municipality was 72,373 inhabitants, in an area of approximately . The municipality has two p ...

References

External links