Anyone who boards a Carris Metropolitana bus in Lisbon can only leave it outside the municipality. And, in the opposite direction, Carris Metropolitana is only allowed to drop off passengers. All this because Carris has exclusivity in the capital. It has always been this way, but it could be different.
The unification of the public transport road system in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area under a single brand - Carris Metropolitana - has highlighted a long-standing issue: within the municipality of Lisbon, Carris has exclusivity and, therefore, passengers who take a bus of the newly launched Carris Metropolitana in Lisbon can only get off when it leaves the municipality of Lisbon. In the opposite direction, from outside to Lisbon, the Carris Metropolitana buses are only allowed to drop off passengers in the capital's municipality, and cannot receive new passengers.
In Lisbon, public road transport is operated, "on an exclusive basis"by the municipal company Carris and defined through a concession contract. The document is very clear about the territorial scope of the carrier: in the "territory of the city of Lisbon"there can only be Carris, but it can do service for "immediately contiguous municipalities" such as Oeiras, Amadora or even Almada:
"The area covered by the Concession comprises, on an exclusive basis, the territory of the city of Lisbon, without prejudice to the existence of secondary and complementary lines or other accessory elements of its activity that enter or are located in the territory of the immediately adjoining municipalities."
- Carris Concession Agreement
Since Carris has the exclusivity of the public road passenger transport service in "territory of the city of Lisbon"Carris Metropolitana can go to Lisbon but it can't interfere with Carris' operation. In other words, Carris Metropolitana can take passengers out of Lisbon and can bring passengers into Lisbon, but it can't take passengers from one point to another within Lisbon.
There are no other means of transportation in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area with geographical restrictions on use. In fact, since the launch of the Navegante fare pricing in 2019, this entire metropolitan territory has been unified with a universal and unlimited public transport pass, which gives access to any operator, at any time of the day, as often as we want. And, by choosing the mode Metropolitan of the Navegante (40€/month), we can look at AML as a whole.
Only in Lisbon and only with Carris and Carris Metropolitana is the promise of unity broken. In a discussion session about the new public transportation service, which took place earlier this week in Algés, an Airport worker, living in Lisbon, told that he has to commute to work a scarce offer from Carris, having sometimes to wait half an hour for the bus, while he sees Carris Metropolitana buses passing by, which he could benefit from if it was allowed. The restriction of free use of the Carris Metropolitana service has also been raised in the Facebook group of Carris Metropolitana Passengerswhere a passenger indicates be none "any indication of this restriction at stops or on the bus"The more occasional passengers may be surprised by the rule.
Indeed, there are several axes in the city of Lisbon where Carris Metropolitana's offer is quite strong, because they are the axes for entering or exiting the city. This is the case of Avenida Calouste Gulbenkian and Avenida de Ceuta, between Campolide and Alcântara; it is the case of Calçada de Carriche and Alameda das Linhas de Torres, between Santa Clara and Lumiar; it is the case of Avenida Almirante Gago Coutinho, between Areeiro and Alvalade; it is also the case of the axis between Marquês de Pombal and Amoreiras, of part of the Belém area or even the northern area of Parque das Nações, towards Loures.
The restriction on the use of a non-Carris bus in Lisbon already existed before Carris Metropolitana, on any of the private operators with service in the capital - Rodoviária de Lisboa (RL), Vimeca, TST... However, the unification carried out now could have been a pretext to review this matter and readjust the exclusivity of Carris, even because it uses part of its name; if it is true that the concession contract will try to safeguard the interests of the municipal company and the city (ensuring that, suddenly, no new competitor appears), Carris Metropolitana is only one and its activity is duly regulated, managed and financed by the 18 municipalities, including Lisbon's. In fact, a better articulation between Carris and Carris Metropolitana could allow the former to pass some inter-municipal lines to the latter, freeing up human resources and fleet for eventual reinforcements in municipal lines.
It should also be noted that Lisbon is a unique case. Carris Metropolitana also does not operate municipal lines in Cascais and Barreiro, where the municipalities have their own public road transport services - but neither MobiCascais nor Transportes Colectivos do Barreiro operate on an exclusive basis similar to Carris. This allows, both in Cascais and Barreiro, passengers to freely get on and off Carris Metropolitana buses, without having to cross the county limits.
As for Lisbon, it will take will and willingness to create new relationships between the two public road transport services. Perhaps it is a question of time. In May 2022Even before the launch of Carris Metropolitana, TML, responsible for operating the new brand, said that no change to the exclusivity situation in Lisbon was foreseen, but that it would study possible exceptions on a case-by-case basis, for example, in the connections to the Airport.
