Portugal's two largest engineering faculties are rebuilding the country's railway research capability after decades of underinvestment, and the effort has already produced measurable results: a 35-strong student team from Lisboa's Instituto Superior Técnico scored 646 points out of a possible 750 at the 2026 IMechE Railway Challenge, returning from Stapleford Miniature Railway in the UK with two awards.

The team, ISTrain, was the highest-placed entry-level contestant at the competition organised by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers' Railway Division. It competed with an incomplete locomotive, 'Andorinha', yet still won the CAD design category and the prize for the best business case, beating all 12 other teams with what judges deemed the most viable, well-researched and professionally presented commercial strategy.

Judges also commended the Lisboa students for visual communication, technical clarity, aesthetic design presentation, precision engineering, digital modelling and the robust virtual architecture developed for the prototype.

'Andorinha' takes shape

Five people lead development of the tiny locomotive, which has been taking shape in an industrial warehouse near Lisboa owned by rail components supplier MCG. Built to the rare 261 mm gauge required by the Railway Challenge, 'Andorinha' — named after the swallow — has an aluminium chassis and bogies with steel axles, wheels and couplers.

'We are trying to deliver as light a train as possible, while keeping the necessary adhesion for traction purposes', says Miguel Meninas, ISTrain's Technical Director. The locomotive is not yet ready for on-track trials, but the team expects it to compete at next year's event.

The project runs on a €10 000 budget, with sponsors including Siemens Mobility and national passenger operator Comboios de Portugal. The team has visited CP's workshops at Entroncamento and Guifões, which were 'important to validate our design and understanding which solutions make sense in the real world', according to Meninas.

ISTrain's involvement began at the end of 2024, when IST Professor Hugo Magalhães brought news of the competition back from the UK and started WhatsApp groups to gauge student interest. 'We were 15 people in our first meeting, and it all started in an IST lecture theatre', Meninas recalls. 'In the beginning we had to multitask, as there were not enough people for all the work. We learnt how to power battery systems, fit a wheel on an axle and many interpersonal skills, such as dealing with other people, managing expectations and budgets.'

The team is now led by master's student Aliya Ibrahimo and draws on mechanical, electrotechnical, aerospace, industrial management and naval engineering expertise. It is organised into five disciplines: structures and aerodynamics; powertrain and energy systems; vehicle dynamics; electronics and software; and marketing, operations and logistics. All members participate voluntarily, in their spare time — many skipped this summer's break to keep working on the prototype when Railway Gazette International visited in mid-July.

The official presentation of 'Andorinha' is scheduled for late September, which Meninas believes will attract new recruits as the academic year begins.

Porto's systematic approach

In Porto, the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Porto consolidated its railway activities into a Centre of Competence in Railways as long ago as 2011, linking academic research with commercial R&D teams and national rail organisations, including through the Europe's Rail Joint Undertaking. The model was developed after a FEUP delegation visited Deutsche Bahn's headquarters in Berlin. 'Our main goal was to look at the railway as a system, linking infrastructure, rolling stock and communications', says FEUP Dean Prof Rui Calçada.

The centre offers courses covering train–infrastructure dynamic interaction, noise and vibration, track buckling, fatigue, condition monitoring, wayside and onboard systems, and traction and onboard energy storage. Industry-integrated teaching draws undergraduates into rail, says Calçada.

Project work to date illustrates the breadth. With construction group Mota-Engil, the centre ran the iPBRAIL project investigating precast bridges for railway applications — an approach intended to cut construction times, improve quality control and limit disruption to operations — plus a separate study of novel noise barrier designs. In rolling stock, FEUP participated in the H2RAIL project to test a hydrogen passenger trainset alongside CP, NomadTech, CaetanoBus and hydrogen association AP2H2. Other research spans advanced materials, data analytics, digital twins, network planning, energy management and door-to-door mobility integration.

More recently, centre researchers have contributed to smart wagon research aimed at improving rail freight efficiency, and to Train Solutions, an initiative to revive passenger rolling stock production in Portugal.

Master's programme pending

Meninas, who is completing a master's in mechanical engineering at IST, laments the absence of a dedicated railway engineering master's in Portugal — a gap FEUP now has approval to fill from the next academic year, subject to ratification by the national education regulator. Calçada hopes to offer a one-year course of five modules aimed at students with around five years' rail sector experience, bringing international expertise into the Portuguese market. Confirmed guest lecturers include Prof Clive Roberts, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science at Durham University, and Sebastian Stichel, Vice Dean of the School of Engineering Sciences at KTH in Stockholm.

FEUP describes the launch as a 'considered decision' that weighed the risk of cannibalising equivalent elements of existing postgraduate programmes in civil engineering and electronics & technology.

The Porto institution is also refining its railway department structure with GARE FEUP, a specialist academic group focused on practical railway studies and competitions, following similar groups in space, nautical and automotive research. 'GARE FEUP will focus on a holistic perspective of the railway system', says Calçada. 'Our ambition is not only to focus on the vehicle itself but also on the communications, propulsion and infrastructure monitoring. This means the team will also have civil engineering skills combined with other fields.'

A GARE FEUP entry at next year's Railway Challenge would need sponsorship secured first, though Calçada points to a track record of partnerships with more than 50 companies — among them Alstom, Siemens, Thales, Mota-Engil and Critical Software.

Meninas plans to attend this month's InnoTrans in Berlin to 'explore his options', though he is keen to pursue his rail career at home. Projects such as Alstom's rolling stock assembly factory under construction in Guifões 'bring hope to the young railway engineers', he says — and a head-to-head between Lisboa and Porto at Stapleford next summer would signal how far Portuguese railway R&D has come.