The launch of Carris Metropolitana is complete. The new yellow bus service has reached Oeiras, Cascais, Sintra, Amadora, Loures, Odivelas, Mafra and Vila Franca de Xira.
As of today, January 1st 2023, there is only one brand of public road transport in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (AML). Carris Metropolitana has already reached the North Shorewhich means the end of the Vimeca, Rodoviária de Lisboa, Scotturb, Mafrense, Santo António, Mafrense and Isidoro Duarte brands. As of today, all buses in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area are yellow and operate under a common brand.
This The new paradigm of road mobility in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area means that it is no longer necessary to know which company operates in a certain zone or municipality to search, on its website, for information about the existing service, the timetables and the fare pricing. With the implementation of this common brand, which also brings with it universal rules, the road service is simplified and standardized, which means it becomes the same in Mafra, Sintra, Oeiras, Almada, Setúbal or Alcochete, for example. There are only three exceptions: Lisbon, Cascais and Barreiro, where municipal bus service continues to be provided by the respective municipal companies (Carris, MobiCascais and TCB), with Carris Metropolitana only providing inter-municipal lines.
Although all buses have the yellow color and the logo of Carris Metropolitana, the operation on the ground will continue to be ensured by private operators. There are four of them: Transportes Sul do Tejo (TST) and Alsa Todi on the South Bank, and Viação Alvorada and Rodoviária de Lisboa (RL) on the North Bank. The big difference is that the management is centralized in the public company Transportes Metropolitanos de Lisboa (TML) - i.e., the private parties simply operate according to TML's guidelineswhich stipulates the supply, timetables, fares, operating rules, bus conditions, etc.
A Viação Alvoradathe result of the merger of Scotturb and Vimeca, is the new carrier to ensure municipal and inter-municipal service in the designated Area 1, composed of the counties of Oeiras, Sintra and Amadora. Viação Alvorada also has intercity lines in CascaisIn this municipality, the internal operation will continue to be handled by MobiCascais, managed by the local authority. As for Lisbon Bus Station gets the service in Area 2, that is, in Loures, Odivelas, Mafra and Vila Franca de Xira. RL absorbs the other companies in the Barraqueiro Group, to which it belongs, such as Santo António, Mafrense or Isidoro Duarte. Both Viação Alvorada and Rodoviária de Lisboa have intercity lines to Lisbon.
The arrival of Carris Metropolitana implies new line numbers (bus lines)which is composed of four digits, where the first corresponds to the Area and the second to the municipality served. There is also a color code, depending on whether it is a Proximity Line (local) or a Long Line (with a wider route), for example. In total, there are six different types of lines. As for fares, there are now differences between tickets bought from the driver, which are more expensive, and tickets bought in advance, through a balance zapping. The goal is to discourage on-board purchasing so that drivers can focus on driving the buses and keeping to the scheduled schedule.
On the Carris Metropolitana website, you can find out the schedules e the stopsas well as using Line Converter to know to which new line the old line corresponds. Carris Metropolitana's information can also be consulted on the applications Moovit e CityMapperIt will soon be on Google Maps as well. These apps will show bus waiting times up to the minute. In 2023, the launch of Carris Metropolitana's own app for cell phones is planned, as well as the dematerialization of the transport card - this means that it will be possible to have the pass on your cell phone or use your bank card to pay for bus trips.
South Bank Improvements
In order to better serve the school community and the passengers that move around in the so-called Area 4, Carris Metropolitana is going ahead with several adjustments and schedule changes as of this Monday, January 2. The reinforcements will take place on the lines 4102 e 4104of Moita, 4206 e 4212in Montijo, 4310 e 4320in Palmela, 4415Setúbal, and on the 4905that leaves the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon for Vendas Novas. You can know the news in detail here.
Also starting Monday, the 4707in the sense Lisbon-Montijowill be reinforced with four new runs during the night, with departures at 21h, 22h, 23h and midnight. This option is due to the increase in demand for this connection and responds to the needs detected on the ground, according to TML. In this sense, also in the Lisbon-Montijo direction, the 8 pm running time has been adjusted to 8:30 pm. To better serve the interests of the population, the timetables used at the weekend in the Montijo-Lisbon direction have also been altered, with the 11 am running time changing to 10 am and the 12.30 pm running time to 12 noon. There will also be a 7am circulation on Saturdays and Sundays.
"Carris Metropolitana appreciates the availability of all passengers during the process of improving the public bus transport service in the Lisbon metropolitan area. The participation of users is considered essential, so we encourage the use of the available contact channels such as the support line (210 418 400) and the contact form on the passenger support page“TML writes.
Launch of Carris Metropolitana concluded
With the enlargement of Carris Metropolitana to the North Shore, the reorganization of the road operation in the 18 municipalities of AML is concludedas long as, for the time being, you have more than 20 thousand schedules/circulations in a weekday (20% more than the schedules of the previous service to Carris Metropolitana), which represent 30% increase in kilometers in operation. Carris Metropolitana has more than 700 lines (of which 13% are new lines) and approximately 12 thousand bus stops, run by 1575 vehicles, of which about 70% are new (an average fleet age of less than one year) - this corresponds to approximately 250 million euros of investment in fleet renewal. The total operation has about 3,000 drivers.
The implementation of Carris Metropolitana is the largest project of its kind in the country and presents a high degree of operational, logistical and technological. The enlargement of the brand to the North Shore has been worked on over the last few months. Since mid-November, most of the buses circulating in the municipalities of the North Shore were already yellow, having gradually been decorated with the elements of the new brand. The bus stops were also receiving flags with the new lines. And in the days before this January 1st, it was possible to verify that some vehicles were already circulating with the new numbering. All this more careful preparation work contrasts with the troubled launch of Carris Metropolitana on the South BankThere were buses running for weeks without numbering, and many stops without any information about the lines they serve.
The start of Carris Metropolitana on the North Bank was initially scheduled for July 2022, together with the expansion on the South Bank, but the lack of new vehicles and drivers led TML to postpone. In a statement sent out now, the public company points out that the migration that begins this january 1st "will bring changes that, however small they may be, will cause impacts on the daily habits of users, and the monitoring mechanisms that ensure the gradual correction of operational aspects and the correct information to the public are defined". To support the passengers, the following are available 26 Navegante Spaces dedicated to Carris Metropolitanathe information line 210 418 800the helpline 210 418 400 and the online form.
