A “metro with wheels”. That's how Carlos Moedas described it in a TV debate, but in reality, what is a Metrobus? Is it just a subway with wheels? And what promises are being made for Lisbon, Oeiras, Amadora and Loures?
O meme came straight out of a television debate, Alexandra Leitão and Carlos Moedas, candidates for mayor of Lisbon. Leitão asked Moedas to clarify the term “metrobus”:
- Carlos Moedas, tell people what a metrobus is.
- It's a segregated road...
- Tell us what it is.
- The metrobus is a light rail with wheels.
- A subway with wheels?... (ironic tone) It's a bus! The term “metrobus” is really meant to fool people.
A “subway on wheels”?
Metrobus is a system similar to the light rail, but instead of streetcars on rails, we have articulated buses (and streetcars) running in lanes segregated from car traffic. Also known as BRT (Bus Rapid Transit), it solves two of the biggest problems of collective road transport: the slowness that sometimes occurs and unpredictability.
By operating in exclusive lanes, with priority at intersections, it gains speed over the car. In addition, it makes fewer stops than a conventional bus, and these stops function almost like metro stations, with ticket validators and digital information panels.
The aim of Metrobus/BRT is to combine the flexibility of the bus with the efficiency of the metro, offering fast, frequent and regular journeys. In cities where it has been implemented, this system has helped attract new passengers to public transport. However, this eventual success will depend on the quality of the infrastructure: if there are truly exclusive lanes, priority at traffic lights and well-equipped stations, the system can come close to the experience of a surface metro, but at much lower costs.
In fact cost issue is one of the biggest advantages of Metrobus. At least in the short term, a BRT is significantly cheaper to implement, since can take advantage of existing road infrastructure, by converting car lanes into exclusive public transport corridors (although this is not what has been done in Portugal).
The purchase of articulated buses also represents a much lower initial investment than light rail vehicles. However, in the long term, the natural wear and tear of the road surface and the lower durability of buses compared to electric vehicles (LRT) can increase the cost of opting for Metrobus.
How does the Metrobus work in Coimbra?
In Lisbon, the Metrobus is a recent issue, but in other municipalities across the country, it has long been the subject of debate. You have to go to Coimbra to find Portugal's first Metrobus in operation.
It's called Metro Mondego and it's the result of a long history, which we can summarize as follows: the he train that connected Coimbra to Lousã was withdrawn in 2010, with the promise of building a light rail system; the work went ahead and some rails were pulled out, but it was suspended with the Troika crisis; millions spent later and with a population without transportation, António Costa's government decided to take up the idea of the Mondego Metro again, only with buses. The system will have two lines and will connect several important points in the city of Coimbra, such as the university, the hospital and the stadium, as well as resuming a fast connection between Coimbra, Miranda do Corvo and Lousã.
Until the end of this year, the Metro Mondego is running on a five-kilometer stretch between Portagem and Vale das Flores, free of charge. Both now and in the future, the Metrobus will run on a completely segregated channel and will have priority at all intersections, i.e. the traffic lights turn red for the other vehicles so that the bus can pass. This makes it faster. The frequencies are, for now, every 15 minutes, and they are adhered to.
The vehicles are articulated electric buses with semi-hidden wheels. The interior is similar to that of a bus, but there are more supports for people to hold on to. Passengers can enter through any door. Being electric vehicles, they are very quiet, which has an impact both during the journey and in the city itself. As they are buses, they do hiccup a little - no big deal, but it's not a journey with the total comfort of a streetcar. There is air conditioning, USB ports and digital panels inside the buses; the latter indicate the route and announce the next stop in a live voice. Unfortunately, bicycles cannot be transported.
The speed is constant and changes smoothly, i.e. there are no sudden accelerations or braking like there might be in a traditional bus on the road with other vehicles. In this respect, the bus resembles a surface metro. Where the whole Metro Mondego is also reminiscent of a real metro is at the stations, where there are panels indicating the passage of the next Metrobus, validators and ticket machines. The stations follow the route of the old railway line, but more stops have been added than there used to be and some detours have been introduced to bring the BRT closer to people and points of interest.
Coimbra's Metrobus is a national pioneer. And it raises several pertinent questions: in the long term, wouldn't it have been a better investment to replace the old train or go ahead with the light rail? While it is true that the Coimbra region is gaining a mobility solution with the BRT that was taken away from it two decades ago, what is the real cost of this system in the long term? Will the modal transition with the Metrobus be significant or is an opportunity to get people out of cars being missed with this option?
The fact is, regardless of these doubts, other Portuguese cities are blazing a trail with BRT. In the city of Invicta, Metro do Porto is launching a Metrobus line between Casa da Música, Serralves and Matosinhos - a controversial project, whether due to the felling of trees, the section where the BRT will be circulating in the middle of cars, or the lack of ambition in the redevelopment of Avenida da Boavista, which still has a very car-centric profile and where the meager bicycle lane that used to exist has been eliminated.
E Braga is looking at the Metrobus as a solution for creating predictable and structuring transportation in a city that is increasingly asserting itself as one of the country's main urban areas (and perhaps the driving force behind a future metropolitan area).
Lisbon wants to connect to Oeiras and Amadora by Metrobus
The idea of a Metrobus in Lisbon arose from a downgrade, as happened in Coimbra. It was 2021 when the municipalities of Lisbon, Oeiras and Loures got together to announce a structuring inter-municipal mobility project, the LIOS - Sustainable Intermodal Line. The project consisted of two lines, the Western LIOS, which would connect Alcântara to Oeiras; and the LIOS Oriental, It would connect Santa Apolónia to Sacavém. The two lines would be connected by streetcar 15, which runs along Lisbon's waterfront, and also to the Lisbon Metro network, both in Alcântara, where the Red Line is due to arrive, and in Santa Apolónia, where the Blue Line ends.
When it was presented in 2020, during Fernando Medina's previous term in office, LIOS only had a preliminary design study. There were no dates or funding prospects for this project, which was not even considered within the scope of the PRR. In other words: it was announced to be done one day, when there was money (and the will).
In Lisbon, Carlos Moedas' Executive, which took office in October 2021, didn't seem to have much interest in LIOS and, despite a few references to the project here and there, left it on the back burner; but in Oeiras, Isaltino Morais' team didn't let the idea drop, talked about LIOS several times over the years, and showed a willingness to take it forward - with or without Lisbon in the project. And he began to design a route that would better serve the municipality and connect it to Amadora, thus fulfilling a long-standing priority of the metropolitan plans: the vertical connection between Algés and Reboleira. The fact is that the Oeiras City Council soon disagreed with the route that had initially been planned for LIOS (also Loures, but we'll come to that in a moment).
It was on July 3rd of this year that Lisbon once again talked about LIOS to announce the change of the project to a Metrobus system. The news wasn't exactly new: at various public events, Oeiras City Council and its municipal mobility company, Parques Tejo, had already swapped the word “streetcar” for the acronym “BRT”. Lisbon only confirmed that LIOS would be run on buses after all. The project was presented at the Carris headquarters in Linda-a-Velha, Oeiras, by the current Deputy Mayor of Lisbon, Filipe Anacoreta Correia, who is out of the mayoral race, and Joana Baptista, Oeiras Councillor for Mobility and now number three on Moedas' lists.
The project was renamed Western TR, The “TR” stands for “Rapid Transportation”. (In the campaign, Carlos Moedas has referred to the idea as “Metrobus Lisbon-Oeiras”). There are proposals 29 stops along a 21-kilometer route, It will pass through Alcântara, the Ajuda University Campus, Restelo, Algés, Miraflores, Linda-a-Velha, Outurela, Alfragide, the Pina Manique Stadium, Portas de Benfica and the Colégio Militar. It will connect the Alcântara and Colégio Militar Metro stations, as well as the Algés and Benfica train stations. The system will operate with 16 electric buses.
It is proposed to take 24 minutes between Algés and the Colégio Militar (instead of the current 37 minutes by public transport), and to reduce the travel time between Linda-a-Velha and Alcântara from the current 35 minutes by public transport to 22 minutes by BRT. It is estimated that Metrobus directly serves 90,000 people, has a demand of 22,000 passengers/day, with 27% new public transport users. It is also expected to remove 4,000 vehicles per day when it is fully operational in 2029, and reduce a total of 38.7 thousand tons of CO2e over 30 years.
According to the presentation made in July, the preliminary, demand and economic feasibility studies were carried out between 2023 and 2024, and the basic program defining the project in detail was completed this year. The financing, worth 93.5 million euros, is provided by the program Sustainable 2030 of the government, and the estimated benefit is 155 million. The environmental impact assessment is scheduled for 2026, followed by the contracting and execution of the project, so that the work can begin the following year. The works are expected to take place between 2027 and 2028, with the Lisbon and Oeiras municipalities pointing to the Metrobus coming into operation in the latter year - although it is more certain that full operation will only take place in 2029, which will be a new election year.
Loures BRT, the strange solution that remains from LIOS
While LIOS Occidental was transformed into an exclusively BRT solution, LIOS Oriental became a mixed system: on the one hand, a Carris streetcar, the 16E, will connect Terreiro do Paço to Parque Tejo, by the Trancão river and Sacavém, passing through Santa Apolónia and the entire riverfront of Beato and Marvila.; On the other hand, a BRT will continue the route from Parque Tejo northwards (towards Bobadela) or southwards (towards Portela).
The Loures BRT and the 16E are part of the “TR Oriental” project, the replacement for LIOS that was announced in April this year. Information about the former is vague on the Loures City Council website, but the municipality led by socialist Ricardo Leão has passed it on to Público newspaper. The system will have 17 stops and will cross three parishes in the eastern part of Loures: Moscavide-Portela, Sacavém and Bobadela. It will be eight kilometers long, with a journey time of 25 minutes and six electric buses (three simple and three articulated), which will run on a dedicated channel, meaning it will be a real BRT system.
The estimated investment is 51 million euros, financed by European funds. Of this, 36 million will be for the infrastructure and 15 million for the buses. The operation should start in 2029, estimating a daily demand of 7,700 passengers. It is not yet known who will manage or operate this Metrobus.
Ricardo Leão, the socialist who succeeded the communist Bernardino Soares as mayor of Loures in 2021, disagreed with the LIOS route that his predecessor had presented alongside Lisbon and Oeiras. And he spent his term in office saying so, revealing that the municipality was working on a new proposal that, according to Leão, would better serve the people. The current proposal “it is more versatile and adaptable to different levels of demand, allowing for more effective implementation”, Loures City Council told Público newspaper. “The solution initially planned, in 2021, by the previous municipal executive, proved to be impractical, which led to the redefinition of the project”, the municipality explains.
He also said that the new route had been designed on the basis of the “current and projected population densities”, He believes that the BRT system will be a great success, covering some 90,000 inhabitants. “will have a significant impact on urban mobility, helping to reduce travel times and encouraging the transition from individual to public transport”.
According to the Câmara de Loures, one of the objectives of the TR Oriental project is to ensure “better coordination between existing public transport in each of the municipalities, creating synergies with the main regional mobility infrastructures, in order to ensure greater efficiency and effectiveness of the public passenger transport service”. In the case of the eastern part of the municipality, “the territory has a highly consolidated urban fabric, with well-identified pedestrian and road mobility problems”.
The Loures BRT will connect to the 16E at Parque Tejo, where streetcar passengers will be able to catch buses to continue their journey: either north, towards Bobadela, or south, towards Portela and Moscavide. The Metrobus route starts at Moscavide Metro station and goes along Praça José Queirós to Portela. It continues along Avenida dos Descobrimentos to Sacavém, stopping at Real Forte, Praça da República and the train station. Crossing the Trancão, it heads towards Bobadela, with four stops, the last of which is at Quinta dos Remédios.
With the TR Oriental and TR Ocidental projects, LIOS remains on the back burner. It was presented in July 2020 by the city councils of Lisbon, Oeiras and Loures, and there was even a collaboration protocol involving Carris and Metro de Lisboa. LIOS would have two lines and be 24.4 kilometers long. The Western line would connect Alcântara, Ajuda, Belém, Algés, Linda-a-Velha and Cruz Quebrada/Dafundo; the route would not go up to Amadora, as is now proposed. The LIOS Oriental would depart from Santa Apolónia (where the 15E would arrive) and connect this train station to Gare do Oriente and from here to Moscavide, Portela and Sacavém, in the municipality of Loures; it would not go to Bobadela, as is now planned.
The Viver Lisboa coalition, headed by socialist Alexandra Leitão, which brings together the PS, Livre, BE and PAN, proposes to resume the construction of a light rail subway between Lisbon and Oeiras and between Lisbon and Loures, abandoning the BRT idea. In Amadora, socialist Vítor Ferreira, the current mayor, proposes that the streetcar or Metrobus corridor should have eight stops in the municipality: IKEA, Alto do Moinho, Estrada do Zambujal, Estrada Maior da Força Aérea, Avenida da República, Cova da Moura, Damaia and Reboleira. In the proposal presented by TR Ocidental, the Metrobus goes around Monsanto and does not go to Reboleira.
