After all, the Metropolitan Carris will only reach the AML North Bank on January 1st next year. Area 3 will go ahead on July 1st, as planned. But the launch will be partial in the municipalities of Almada Seixal and Sesimbra.
On July 1st, the Carris Metropolitana service will be extended to Area 3The new service, which corresponds to the municipalities of Almada, Seixal and Sesimbra, will have more frequencies, timetables, new lines and a renewed fleet of buses. But the launch will be gradual. On the North Bank, Carris Metropolitana will be postponed until January 2023.
During this summer period, 111 lines will be in operation, compared to the current 88 - but when Carris Metropolitana is fully operational in Area 3, 149 lines should be in operation. For the time being, 339 vehicles will circulate, 236 of which will be brand new, significantly reducing the age of the fleet currently in service. The five Carris Metropolitana Navegante Spaces, the completely renovated customer support stores where you can buy tickets, top up passes and carry out other relevant operations, will also come into operation on June 26.
The figures for Area 3 of Carris Metropolitana
- there will be 149 linesof which 50 are new lines and 56 are lines that already exist but will be reinforced, totaling more than 310 paths;
- are planned in this area more than 1.4 million circulations/yearThis corresponds to 120 thousand circulations/month and 4 thousand/day;
- operation 24 hours;
- fleet consisting of more than 330 buses, of which 290 will be new. There will be 11 different bus models circulating in this lot;
- there will be more than 2000 stops e 50 digital panels of public information.
Area 4 reinforced on July 1st
Also on July 1, the road service in Area 4, which corresponds to the municipalities of Alcochete, Barreiro, Moita, Montijo, Palmela and Setúbal, will increase, since the level of service being provided is still lower than that contractually defined in Carris Metropolitana.
TML, which is responsible for Carris Metropolitana, says that in addition to a completely new fleet of buses.., in Area 4, the timetables, frequencies and lines in operation today are already higher than they used to be (before June 1st), with levels of demand higher than previously recorded on some inter-municipal routes.
North bank postponed
In Area 1, which corresponds to the municipalities of Amadora, Cascais, Lisboa, Oeiras and Sintra, and in Area 2, which corresponds to the municipalities of Loures, Mafra, Odivelas and Vila Franca de Xira, the start of operations is postponed to the day January 1st, 2023as the conditions considered essential for the new service to come into operation have not been guaranteed, for reasons for which the operators providing the service in Areas 1 and 2 are responsible.
The lack of a significant number of new vehicles, the inaccuracy of their availability dates and the adequacy of the information systems needed to provide the service in accordance with the requirements of the specifications and the contracts signed for Areas 1 and 2. are, among a few others, the main reasons identified for considering that the service is not in a position to be put into practice.
In Areas 1 and 2, and until Carris Metropolitana comes into operation (on January 1, 2023), road transport operations will take place under the normal and usual conditions as they have up to now.
The four operators responsible for operating Carris Metropolitana in the four geographical areas are contractually responsible for adapting the road operation to the levels of service required in the specifications (i.e. fleet renewal and a significant increase in supply, among others) and for informing, at previously defined times, any facts that may prevent the start of operations on the dates set in the contract, which has not happened with the necessary advance notice for decision-making, says TML.
TML, in close coordination with all the local councils, has made every effort to ensure that this process takes place with the least possible disruption to the population and that the operation of Carris Metropolitana is a truly disruptive reality in terms of the quality of the road service currently practiced in the Lisbon metropolitan area (AML).
