The boats between Barreiro and Lisbon now have 700 seats through "a rearrangement of the existing seats and the addition of new seats (identical to the original ones)" in the existing fleet.
Since January 1st, the river connection between Barreiro and Lisbon was reinforced with 100 new seats, now offering 700 seats per trip. Seats were added and "a rearrangement of existing seats and the addition of new seats (identical to the originals)" on existing ships, as TTSL explained to Lisboa Para Pessoas.
Following this increase in capacity, TTSL added two additional life rafts, with capacity for 50 people each. On the connection between Barreiro and Lisbon (Terreiro do Paço), TTSL has a fleet of six catamaran ships. In 2019, on this line alone the river operator transported 9.1 million passengers, with ships making a total of 40,000 journeys.
The addition of 100 new seats adds supply to a highly sought-after river connection, at rush hour, it has frequencies of 5-10 minutes, allowing you to cross in 15 minutes. Reports say that at these critical times, some passengers sit on the stairs or stand instead of taking up all the available seats. "I don't think I've ever seen all the seats occupied"says a frequent passenger on TTSL's Barreiro-Lisbon connection. "People are starting to stand up before all the seats are occupied, because they don't want to occupy the seats in the middle of the rows."
The river operator, which has been recovering passengers since the pandemic, explains that he did "structural, ergonomic and stability calculations" to reinforce the capacity of the six ships that ply the two shores between Lisbon and Barreiro, and that the entire fleet had to undergo a safety inspection and certification by the Directorate-General for Natural Resources, Safety and Maritime Services (DGRM). "Having completed this process on all the ships in the fleet, last December 2022, TTSL successfully carried out pilot tests of the new capacity, which officially came into force on January 1, 2023."
