Classic route
Alfa Pendular Lisbon–Faro
Lisbon → Faro · Portugal
Portugal’s tilting Pendolino leans into the curves at up to 220 km/h, dropping down the Alentejo to the Algarve at Faro.
How this line was checked
- The 302 km this route shares with OpenStreetMap relation 18732710 is drawn from that relation's own nodes, thinned to within 26 m of them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: 99% of this line lies within 250 m of real track (median 11 m); the longest stretch away from it is 3 km
- Checked against the running timetable via Comboios de Portugal: our line passes within 40 m of every station the IC to Faro calls at (the operator publishes no route geometry to compare)
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
Questions and answers
How long is the Alfa Pendular?
The Alfa Pendular runs 304 km from Lisbon to Faro.
How long does the Alfa Pendular take?
The fastest scheduled journey is 2 h 52 min for the 304 km. That is an average of 106 km/h end to end. The line's top service speed is 220 km/h.
Who runs the Alfa Pendular?
CP.
How old is the Alfa Pendular?
The line has been in service since 2004. That is the year the atlas dates it from: for a modern brand running over an older railway, it is the railway's date, not the brand's.
More classic routes
- LNER Azuma
The Flying Scotsman’s route since 1862: and where Mallard set the never-beaten steam record of 203 km/h in 1938.
Wikipedia ↗ - Alfa Pendular
A tilting Pendolino leaning through the curves of the 19th-century Linha do Norte between Portugal’s two great cities.
Wikipedia ↗ - EIP Pendolino
Rides Poland’s 1970s Central Main Line (CMK), engineered decades ahead of its time and now being upgraded to 250 km/h.
Wikipedia ↗ - Railjet
Follows the old Orient Express alignment down the Danube plain: centre to centre faster than any flight.
Wikipedia ↗
More train routes in Portugal.
Planning this trip? Journey time & direct trains: Faro → Lisbon · Lisbon → Faro.