The public transport network in the São Paulo Metropolitan Region has long been the target of dozens of complaints on its own channels and protests, mainly on social media. Delays in connections or, quite simply, the “disappearance” of scheduled times and overcrowding of buses or trains are some of the reasons given. With some of these reasons gaining prominence in recent months, with a special focus on the rail connection between Setúbal and Lisbon.
Every day I hear complaints that, in Lisbon, the Railsa company under the authority of the municipality, is lowering quality. Passengers of the Fertagus continue to see train schedules not being adhered to – in this case the concessionaire says that a large part of the blame lies with Infrastructures of Portugalwhich requires a reduction in the speed of compositions.
Given these examples, it is not surprising that data from Upper Project – which follows the evolution of public transport networks in the European Union – show that Lisbon is below the average of EU capitals in the use of public transport, with the most recent figures showing that only 22% of trips in the city are made by public transport, while many European capitals exceed 40% or even 50%, as was recently mentioned by DN journalist Margarida Vaqueiro Lopes in a work on the unit price of transport tickets in comparison with other cities in the Union European.
But today I don’t want to dwell on the criticisms, especially because they are too well known, but rather to add some questions addressed to whoever may possibly supervise the public transport network.
Namely: when will an effective public transport information network be created that allows, in real time, to notify passengers of a given service of a change in a connection? For example: what is the reason that prevents the Lisbon Metro to alert the train service that a certain line is out of service so that passengers who need to use the subway know that it is not available? And so, they can manage their trip and, who knows, get off at another station where the underground connection works?
Another case: it will be difficult to make placards placed near Carris stops can have reliable information about service times?
I think public transport users would be grateful for these adjustments. Until then, we will continue to hear complaints about poor service. And the continued use of private cars, with Lisbon continuing to run counter to cities like Paris, Brussels or Amsterdam, for example.
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