"Spain is very beautiful, it's not just Madrid," says Costa about high speed

Lisbon (Portual), June 3 (EFE), (Camera: Paula Fernández).- The Portuguese prime minister, the socialist António Costa, today advocated a high-speed Iberian network, but avoided specifying whether Portugal would bet on a line between Lisbon and the Spanish capital: "Spain is very beautiful, it's not just Madrid," he told Efe.

STATEMENTS BY THE PORTUGUESE PRIME MINISTER, ANTÓNIO COSTA, DURING A MEETING WITH SPANISH BUSINESSMEN ORGANIZED BY THE PORTUGUESE-SPANISH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN A LISBON HOTEL.

Translation:

"Later we are going to discuss with the Government of Spain. The issue is not how to go to Madrid, it is how to go to any point of the high-speed network of the Iberian Peninsula. I may want to go to Madrid, or Barcelona, or Valencia or Seville. Spain is very beautiful, it's not just Madrid."

"But what really matters is not the discussion between Lisbon and Madrid, what matters is knowing how Portugal integrates into the Iberian high-speed network. Either it stays out or it stays in. When I say it's a network, it's a high-speed network that Spain developed and is developing that began with a single line between Madrid and Seville, but today it already extends throughout Spain".

"There is an element that I think helps a lot in this national debate, which is to define the priority line, which we have already defined, and it is Lisbon-Oporto-Vigo, uniting the entire country at high speed. And then we have to complete with the Government of Spain the discussion that follows, what is the best way to connect this Atlantic axis to the network as a whole. If it is what was planned, Lisbon-Évora-Badajoz, or if it is that traditional connection that we have had over the centuries and develops an axis between Aveiro and Salamanca, allowing it to lead to Madrid or other points on the Iberian Peninsula. There is a part of us that has decided, Lisbon-Oporto-Vigo. I believe that in the coming years we will have the political conditions to be able to discuss with Spain a final solution".