Portugal’s Flagship High-Speed Train | Alfa Pendular from Lisbon to Porto

[@sergiofreitas9368]

Alfa Pendular is a name that derived from the former "Alfa" services, which were like a flagship before the AP, and the predecessor of the Intercity service. Afterwards, the IC service was created, and the Alfa brand remained on the Pendolinos, being instead branded as Alfa Pendular.

[@Thom-TRA]

I did not know that. Thanks!

[@pauloraposo871]

@@Thom-TRAAre you gay?

[@pauloportugal1396]

FYI all the sensors in the toilet are at the top (soap / tap / drier). So to turn the water on you need to place your hand above the tap. ;)

[@233CFH]

Great video. Portugal definitely is a place I'd like to visit one day.

[@Thom-TRA]

It’s beautiful. And very affordable. And Europe is awesome anyways if you love trains…

[@nacht98]

I'm a fan of Alfa Pendular, so I loved the video...lots of details. Thank you.

[@Thom-TRA]

Thank you! I’m definitely a fan now too!

[@DW-Belgium]

thanks vor the video very prof , i am taking the Alfa Pendular nexth month from Porto to Faro , very exited for the ride !

[@Thom-TRA]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed! Next time I go to Portugal I want to take it to Faro too! I want to take a train over the Ponte 25 de Abril and I want to explore the Algarve!

[@DW-Belgium]

@@Thom-TRA Yeah Portugal is awesome ,Algarve has spectaculair beaches , trains in Portugal are really easy and comfortable , We have high speeds trains too in Belgium between Belgium , Holland UK and France , you should try them too haha-)

[@Thom-TRA]

@@DW-Belgium I used to live in the Netherlands. I’ve been on Thalys, Eurostar, TGV, and ICE before, but never enough of course. I wish I could go back soon and record some more… how are things in Belgium?

[@DW-Belgium]

@@Thom-TRA things are ok here yes Thalys is our national high speed train its a Belgian-French-German company soon they will merge with Eurostar , that will also be the new name for the Thalys trains then !

[@Thom-TRA]

@@DW-Belgium I wonder if the livery will change after the merger

[@kittty2005]

I love your channel and I really like your delivery, it makes me want to watch all your videos. I've been trying to convince others that they would get more views if they gave their presentations that personal touch, I immediately subbed with the black bell and a like, I must be an outlier, I appreciate a well thought out script, no I'm not a professional filmographer, just a connoisseur of fine videos, the more people in them the better they are.

[@Thom-TRA]

Thank you!!!

[@nelsonsoares2975]

Great vid guys.. A few years back my wife & I flew in from Toronto Canada to Lisboa then took the Alfa to Porto , It was our first experience on the Alfa & let me tell you we would do it again, great ride & I recommend it to everyone , would like to see Portugal add more lines for the Alfa across this beautiful safe & clean very affordable & very much underrated old but yet new country ... looking forward to our next Alfa ride ... Thanks - Obrigado for the up load :)

[@francinepoirier3645]

Thank you for this excellent and informative video. The info is clear, precise and you show us what is important.

[@Thom-TRA]

I’m glad you enjoyed. Thank you!

[@MrBrick113]

Just FYI the Porto Card is only available for Porto residents. No one else can have it. :( Also, our trains are indeed quite old but the government is ordering 117 + 22 EMUs for suburban and regional rail + 12 high-speed trains for the upcoming highspeed line from Porto to Lisbon which will be ready if everything goes to plan by the end of the decade. Speeds will probably be around the 300 km/h mark. Also we bought 51 200 km/h train cars from Spain for only 1,5 million euros that were only 25 years old and were going to be srapped and now refurbished them with everything new parts inckuding boggies and they are now starting to run. This was such a success and there was such an uproar in Spain for this bargain that the spanish dont want to sell us more of those Arco cars even though they still have dozens more just waiting to get scrapped ahahahhah

[@Thom-TRA]

I’m very excited for the new improvements on the CP network. Are they actually going to build the high speed line? I hope they do. The Porto card is strongly marketed towards tourists. I wonder what that’s all about…

[@dennisforner6090]

Trains are truly awesome. Enjoyed your video & commentary on the Alfa Pendular. Just added Portugal to my ever-expanding bucket list. So far I have been fortunate to ride trains in Canada & USA. For Europe, I was lucky to take my family to Northern Italy from Australia, pre-COVID (August/September 2019) for a 6-week fast train journey from Milan, Genoa, Turin, Venice, Bologna, Florence & Rome. The two fast trains FreeciaRossa (Red Arrow) & FrecciaArgento (Silver Arrow) are also great trains to travel long distances. Another feature of train travel is that you generally depart/arrive in the centre of the city & fewer security hassles than aeroplanes. Hope to do more train trips through Europe in the meantime I'm enjoying watching your train videos. Much appreciated.

[@Thom-TRA]

That’s awesome! I’ve been on some of the Sydney trains waaaay back when I was a little kid. Let’s hope this pandemic is over soon, I think we’re all tired of it…

[@Thom-TRA]

And Italy is gorgeous. Frecciarossa is on my ever-expanding bucket list!

[@utndiep]

Thanks for this video! We need this for our day trip from Lisbon to Porto

[@Thom-TRA]

You are going to love the whole trip! The train and the city. Glad I could help :)

[@francinepoirier3645]

Thank you for such a valuable and informative video. Well done!

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

Besides Calatrava's Lisboa Oriente station, I'm also a fan of his Oculus at World Trade Center as well! I know Calatrava's Oculus is controversial, but honestly, I think it's stunning. Whenever I walk into Grand Central Terminal, it's a breathtaking experience, and I get that same feeling walking into the Oculus. And that was the inspiration for Calatrava, he wanted to emulate Grand Central Terminal. He wanted to give a building to the community for a place like Ground Zero, a monument to the community, something that celebrates the day-to-day with the people, not to think this part of NYC is a somber place, but a place that keeps moving forward. It's meant to resemble “a bird flying from the hands of a child,” bringing a sense of hope to a site of tragedy. The model for the construction of the Oculus is said to have been the Pantheon in Rome and, specifically, its oculus, which gave the station its name. But the Pantheon in Rome was not Calatrava’s only model. Another important reference is said to have been the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II of Milan, which inspired the architect to conceive and design the urban space in a different way, the architect’s intention was to make those who use the Hub feel protected but, at the same time, an active part of New York’s civil fabric. Other than the Oculus and Lisboa Oriente, Calatrava also worked on the Turning Torso in Malmö in 2005 (which was the tallest in the Nordic countries between 2005 and 2022), the City of Arts and Sciences and Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia, Rio de Janeiro's Museum of Tomorrow in 2015, Auditorio de Tenerife in 2003, the Montjuïc Communications Tower for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona (built to transmit coverage of the Olympics and represents an athlete holding the Olympic Flame), Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in Dallas in 2012, Florida Polytechnic University also in 2012, and the Liège-Guillemins railway station in 2009!

[@zugundbusvideoseuropa8896]

I ride with this train from Lisbon to Faro. It's absolutly genial. Very comfortible. And to Porto with the Intercidades.

[@Thom-TRA]

We love it too! Trip report on the Intercidades coming in a few weeks!

[@JasonBagley]

Enjoyed your review of this trip!

[@kikibzh4262]

Thank you for the video. I didn’t comment this video, but I’ve discover your channel with this one a few weeks ago. I know this train as Cisalpino in Switzerland on lines to Italy, called ETR470. I find that the interior looks like a plane, was not very fan of them. I dun know when but I would like to go again to portugal, and include a train journey like this is a great idea. Thank you for sharing

[@Isochest]

The door mechanism between coaches was brutal back in 2006 unlike the UK variant. A local man was concerned my son broke his arm in the door on a trip to Lisbon from the Algarve back then.

[@fritsmulder9136]

What an inspiring video! I absolutely want to ride on this train between Porto and Lisbon. I really like your style of describing the train, the journey and your sense of humour ("don't try buying the Porto card from this lady, because she says it doesn't exist" LOL). Thank you.

[@sarak.1742]

You know what... you got yourself a new subscriber!

[@Thom-TRA]

You know what… I appreciate that a lot!!

[@stevesteffen7001]

Just catching up on your videos, enjoyed this one.

[@Thom-TRA]

Glad you enjoyed! This was a great trip

[@teodoro1007]

I have lived in really a lot of countries. I selected Coimbra in Portugal in 2021 after becoming a widower in Argentina. Just arrived from Madrid through Ezeiza (Buenos Aires) - Amsterdam, somebody selected the pendolino for me. In the too expensive Lisbon is the Argentine embassy, so I have to travel a lot to Lisbon, as an Argentina born citizen of this country. Luckily, I'm an EU citizen, so I move freely here. My fav is the Alfa Pendular train, and I admire Oriente. As senior, I pay a 50% unsurpassably cheap fare. I started 2023 in Funchal with the world-famous fireworks, flying from Porto to Madeira (Porto Coimbra is only one hour away from Coimbra, Lisbon two). I liked your vid, but please, habilitate the auto-generated subtitles in different languages.

[@yagi3925]

Hello, Thom and Lindsey! You're a lovely couple and it's great to see you explore Europe and find out about the Old Continent. You're really open-minded and eager to learn and explore the world and it's a pleasure to share this passion with you.

[@Thom-TRA]

Thank you! Thom is from Europe and Lindsey is from the US so I think we bring the best of both worlds!!

[@lindseydeshetler593]

Wish we could go back to Porto! I loved riding that train

[@Thom-TRA]

Take me back to that whole trip pleaaase

[@carrie668]

This is helpful information as I will be there later in the year. Thanks for sharing

[@Thom-TRA]

Hope you enjoy!

[@londonwhaley8690]

I enjoyed that video👍👍

[@zHumanfactor]

You are such a train nerd... and I love it! :🚆

[@Thom-TRA]

It’s true, no way to hide it lol

[@nashorn9745]

SBB had very similar trains to these ons but they had many problems and many people hated them I myself got stuck in one of them for 2 hours a few kilometers from Zürich HB in a Tunnel they now sadly scraped them

[@metamorphify]

Great descriptive video, thank you! The Turistica class looks very comfortable and clean. Would you be able to highlight any differences between the Turistica & Comfort classes? We are ready to book our return tickets from Porto to Lisbon and wondering if spending the extra €25/person/way for the Comfort is really worth it? (Showing €20/person/ride for Turistica Vs €45/person/way for Comfort). We will be carrying 1 large suitcase each and 1 carry on. Thanks, again!

[@Thom-TRA]

I think Turistica is more than worth it. The seats are wider in Comfort, but that seems like a steep price difference. The Comfort lounge is closed at Lisboa Oriente. I’d recommend Turistica, for a 3 hour trip it’s very nice. Let me know what you decide and how it goes!

[@zizibressa4251]

Very good and helpful video

[@pat9532]

Coming n July an will b on this train from faro 2 lasgos to porto.the north

[@stephenleadersf]

Great stuff!

[@Thom-TRA]

Thank you!

[@elbamellado7853]

Hi! loved the video!!! One question, how do you go from the airpot in Porto to the train station? I will be arriving at Porto but staying in Coimbra. Thanks!

[@Thom-TRA]

The Porto Metro will take you straight from the airport to Downtown! I will be releasing a video on this soon!

[@charliemontholon]

Good video, I’m not familiar with trains, how and were did you book your trip and the cost? Is there enough space for baggage? Is turística fine or should we book a higher class? Thanks for your reply.

[@Thom-TRA]

We booked online through their website. I believe it was €18 per person. There is enough space for baggage, mostly in racks at the end of the cars. Turistica was great, the seats were so comfortable.

[@charliemontholon]

@@Thom-TRA Thanks

[@dragonserene1877]

Does anyone know if you can get an uber from this train station to Porto city center? And why would this train not stop in the center when that is where most ppl would go? I am trying to book a ticket and was confused on which station was best not knowing the high speed train only goes to one of them and not even the center one.

[@Thom-TRA]

You should just take the metro, it’s super easy, way cheaper, and better for the environment.

[@gandsmeyer2957]

just to clarify, did you switch trains twice in Coimbra and Aveiro? or did you stay on the same train and show us the stops? Do they announce when the train is stopping? just curious we are planning a trip to Lisbon in may and want to take the train to Porto too.

[@Thom-TRA]

Nope, it’s a direct train service. I just showed you the stations from inside the train. Some Alfa Pendulars don’t even have any intermediate stops.

[@chrisj3055]

Get the train ticket for the Alpa be bought at the station or it must be pre booked?

[@Thom-TRA]

I would recommend pre booking

[@spyhunter66]

Thanks for this video! We’re trying to decide between taking train or the short flight from Lisbon to Porto. Did you get a chance to check out the AP first class lounge in Lisbon? How was the wifi on the train? Also do you think someone prone to motion sickness might have an issue with the tilting train? There are IC trains that are only slightly slower. Thank you!

[@Thom-TRA]

Thanks for your comment! I unfortunately don’t know what the lounge looks like. For both flying and the train, you’ll need to use the metro to get to the station or airport in both cities. But the airport is farther by metro in both Lisbon and Porto. The tilting on the Alfa is not bad at all, it only throws you off when you’re trying to walk around aboard the train. Intercidades are a great alternative, just 30 minutes slower but comfy trains nonetheless. I will be uploading a review later this fall. Fares on the IC are almost €10 cheaper too. Finally, the train has some pretty views on this journey. Especially gliding into Porto makes the train superior in my opinion. Hope this helps!

[@Thom-TRA]

Oh and WiFi is pretty good too! It’s all we used, being on US phone plans

[@spyhunter66]

@@Thom-TRA I looked into the lounge and apparently its temp closed (due to covid?). So you didn’t miss anything:)

[@milomhoek]

Hi! I take the AP quite frequently and yes the lounge is closed due to covid. I do tend to get motion sickness on the AP so the IC would be a better option but is slightly slower and less modern but also cheaper. I would recommend taking the train as it is a more relaxing experience and better for the environment too!

[@spyhunter66]

@@milomhoek thank you!

[@robbieburton2450]

Was looking to do this journey and was wondering if you booked the tickets in advance or on the day of travel?

[@Thom-TRA]

I booked them a day in advance

[@jcgoldstrom]

Dude. You forgot to show us how to buy a ticket! :-( But it was a great video! Add additional useful information, like are there any baggage restrictions, such as size of the luggage..

[@Thom-TRA]

I bought it online. I always show it when I buy stuff at ticket machines, but not online.

[@bernieadin1567]

Enjoy your enthusiasm for trains, something I share with you. It would be helpful for me if you illustrated your journeys with a map including where you are and your destination.

[@Thom-TRA]

I’ve been doing more of that in my recent videos! This one’s a bit older

[@marcinklimas2670]

Boarding is european standard. No check-in, no last calling, no escorting to the platform, no security. Just look for the platform and/or truck number, go theree, hop on a train, and enjoy.

[@Thom-TRA]

I am European, I know how European train boarding works. This is more chaotic than places like the Netherlands or Germany, where people try to spread out more, go to their section of the train, and actually wait to let people off the train before they get on.

[@marcinklimas2670]

@@Thom-TRA We have the same in Poland, like in Portugal, so no problem😃

[@Thom-TRA]

@@marcinklimas2670 that doesn’t surprise me

[@shashankkatiha9439]

It was all made in Italy. Portugal is just using it. There are a just a handful of countries that can make high-speed trains.

[@Thom-TRA]

Nobody ever said it was made in Portugal

[@metalkokorea]

much better than VIA CANADA

[@mariovieira838]

Nice video ;) As for the Alfa train, it could be much better if track conditions were much better in some places (thats why sometimes the ride is somehow bunpy). A little hint to see the train tilting from the inside: when in the 'high side ' rail, when tilting acts, sometimes you cannot see the houses outside. As for travel time, it used to be 2Hrs 44Mins from Lisbon to Porto, but extra padding was added because of works nearing Porto. It will get back to normal schedule when work is complete. Here's a different view from the same trip from the head end; kzbin.info/www/bejne/aoPcl2lupLR8l8k

[@Thom-TRA]

Thanks for the tip! I’ll have to come back and take another look. I did notice the slower speed, hopefully the construction leads to good improvements. I love your country, I cannot wait to go back.

[@GobbiExists]

What the Acela wishes to be

[@Napoleon_Blownapart]

Don't go in the Intercidades train. Unless you like 50 year old style cars with a hole to the tracks as a toilet.

[@Thom-TRA]

We actually just uploaded a review of the Intercidades a few weeks ago!

[@carlschnier4089]

Do you have to touch everything, press every button ? I hope you wash your hands !

[@Thom-TRA]

You do have to touch the buttons to make them do what they’re made to do. That’s the thing about buttons.

[@annakim8808]

farturas != portugal's donuts ahahahahah

[@Thom-TRA]

I’ll have to try them!

[@mracer8]

I understand mask. But why do you have to wear mask filming and talking to a mic.

[@Thom-TRA]

Because this was filmed in 2021 and those were the rules. Not super bright are we?

[@mracer8]

@@Thom-TRA I understand all that and gone thru all that, but the rules didn't say you have to wear and talk thru mask when you were alone outside/inside with nobody around? maybe the rule is different in Portugal and you have to wear mask 24/7, in that case I apologize!

[@Thom-TRA]

@ I’m not having this discussion with you. The pandemic was 4 years ago. Get over it.

[@joeraymond6649]

Come to find out half of America was ahead of most countries on those stupid masks after all.