Évora–Caia delay costs Medway its daily freight Sines-Seville trains

The opening of Portugal’s new Évora–Caia line has slipped once again, this time to 2028, and the first casualty is already known. MSC has reportedly suspended the daily Medway freight service between the port of Sines and Seville, taking around 50,000 containers a year to a Spanish port instead. “Unfortunately, we found out recently that it will no longer be in ’27, but in ’28”, Carlos Vasconcelos, CEO of Medway, told Portugues media SOL. “The client was not willing to wait that long and decided to suspend the service.” The client in question is MSC, which is also Medway’s shareholder.

The connection between Sines and Andalusia, which Medway launched in 2018, had already been piling up problems on both sides of the border. On the Portuguese side, the main bottleneck is the Vendas Novas line, where upgrade works were only awarded in December 2025, for €120 million and with a 48-month timeline. Restrictions linked to these works cost Medway 19 trains in a single week, Vasconcelos said. Without the new line, trains from Sines to Spain also have to make a 140-kilometre detour.

On 16 January, Minister of Infrastructure Miguel Pinto Luz declared the works on the line completed and promised trains within a year. He now points to theft and vandalism of catenary, signalling and telecommunications equipment, which forced parts of the infrastructure to be rebuilt.

This story was originally published by RailFreight.com. Read the full story at RailFreight.com →