Multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA): Central Porto high-speed railway station

Over recent years, Portugal has been working towards their integration in the trans-European high-speed railway network. While in Spain several new high-speed lines are already under construction or beginning operation, in Portugal the necessary studies are still being carried out. One of these studies concerned the location of one of the high-speed railway stations to be built in the city of Porto, meant to connect the second most populated metropolitan area in Portugal to the high-speed railway network. The goal for the study was to compare alternative siting strategies, defined by the Portuguese high-speed railway authority. These strategies were materialized in a set of location alternatives, which were evaluated from a range of technical, economical, social and environmental criteria. This paper describes the multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) approach by which the best alternative was identified from the given set of possible alternatives.