Lisbon's free public transport program, aimed at young residents and those over 65, has seen 90,554 sign-ups in its first year. About a third will be new users.
Lisbon City Council is marking one year of free public transport, indicating that the program, aimed at city residents over 65 years old and students up to 23/24 years old, has registered 90,554 accessions since its launch.
"Lisbon now has more than 90,000 residents enjoying free public transport in the city. Around 16% of Lisbon's population currently does not pay to ride the bus, streetcar, metro and train in our municipality", says the municipality. According to the municipality, the measure has enabled bring more than 33,000 new users to the city's public transport system, "an impressive increase of almost 60%". On the other hand, the number of students using transport increased by 62%, a growth that "it is also very expressive". "There are now 12,500 more young people with a Navegante pass than there were before the measure came into force"The municipality also said.
These figures were made known on Wednesday, July 26, during the discussion and approval of a vote of greeting to the measure. The text was presented by the Mayor, Carlos Moedas, and the six councillors of the PSD/CDS coalition; with the abstention of the entire opposition, the seven favorable votes of the PSD/CDS coalition and the six councillors of the PSD/CDS coalition. New Times were sufficient for the approval of the document, which only serves to mark one year of the program.
In the approved vote of greeting, the House says that "free transport for younger and older residents promotes more universal access to transport and is an effective expression of the right to mobility". "It also contributes to the ongoing process of decarbonization of Lisbon, promoting more economically efficient and environmentally sustainable mobility, since the measure contributes to favoring the choice of collective transport over individual transport."he adds.
Half of the target population
According to the 2021 Census, the city of Lisbon has around 37,000 resident students (note: only persons aged 15 and over are considered) and around 113,000 residents over 65 years old. More detailed data provided to LPP by the municipality indicate that of the almost 91,000 accessions, around 33,000 are students and 58,000 are from the older population. Doing the math, we can estimate that free public transport is used by about 62% of the student population living in Lisbon and by about 50% of the older population of the city.
The Lisbon City Council has indicated to LPP that is still finalizing the balance of new users attracted to public transport by this measure.Therefore, the data presented in the vote of greeting will still be preliminary. The data presented to LPP by the municipality show that, in October 2019, there were 44,000 people over the age of 65 carrying the Navegante pass and among students were 18 thousandHowever, for the older population, the municipality prefers to average the pass uploads made in October 2019 with those made in March 2022 (28 thousand), which gives around 36,000 passengers resident in the city of Lisbon over the age of 65. Adding it up, we can consider 54,000 people from the measure's target audience using the public transport system before the gratuity, which allows us to estimate 36,000 new users - a figure slightly above the one presented in the vote of greeting, but the difference is short.
Pedro Anastácio, from the PS, considered the vote of greeting as a "self-praise that does not shame" Carlos Moedas, criticizing a "lack of recognition" for the work done in previous mandates and in other government bodiess, such as the creation of the pass Navigator 12In 2017, it allowed all children up to the age of 12 not to pay for transportation throughout the Lisbon metropolitan area. Anastácio regretted that there had not been a "strengthening the offer" as foreseen in the free-of-charge proposal approved in 2022. "These investments have not yet advanced. I urge you to make these investments [in public transport] and to also reinforce investments in GIRA, because we have seen it go through a lot of difficulties, due to the wrong choices such as the excessive opening of stations without sufficient bicycles and free of charge when the system does not provide an effective response.“, said the Socialist councillor (the Navegante pass became part of GIRA free of charge in May this yearfor all residents of the capital).
Beatriz Gomes Dias, a BE councillor, accused Moedas of "usurpation of intellectual property" because he believes that the free public transport measure is the result of his party's efforts. "If today there is a free offer of public transport for over 65s and students, it is the result of an uncompromising initiative by the Left Bloc, which presented a proposal that the President tried to shelve for several months."the Bloc councillor claimed, despite free public transport having been an election proposal of both the BE and the coalition. New Timesof the current Mayor.
Metropolitan scale?
For its part, João Ferreira, PCPIn a statement to the Council, he declined to comment on ownership issues of the measure, preferring to note its municipal scope. "We have always argued that this advance [free transport] should be achieved at metropolitan level and not at municipal level. In fact, we said so at the time this proposal was approved.", said the Communist councillor. "The main flows take place on a metropolitan rather than a municipal scale. It is therefore at this scale that instruments such as free public transport must be guaranteed. And it must be done not by means of a budgetary effort by the municipalities - which are not in a position to ensure this, with the exception of the Municipality of Lisbon - but with due accountability on the part of the Government. That is what this House has undertaken to do: to continue to put pressure on the Government to ensure that progress is made in the field of free public transport in the Lisbon metropolitan area. I fear that this has not been done with the necessary persistence."
João Ferreira said that the measure as it is designed creates "inequalities among Lisboners, particularly those studying outside Lisbon who can no longer benefit from gratuity" and highlighted the launch of the passes Navigator e Walking in the country's two metropolitan areas in 2017, considering it "the most far-reaching measure in the field of mobility policies that has been adopted in our country in the last decade", allowing for the existence of "an intermodal social pass substantially cheaper than before, valid for all operators and for the entire metropolitan area". The PCP councillor also asked for a "improvement in the quality of supply"He said that the "direct responsibilities under Carris" that Lisbon City Council has and the "indirect responsibility" it has with the Lisbon Metro. "There the steps taken were insufficient in our opinion, but we will continue to fight for it [this improvement in public transport] to happen", finished João Ferreira.
