With the new Navegante Points, making the card for the pass can take only a few minutes.
Following the traditional process, the Navegante card (ex-Lisboa Viva) implies the filling of paperwork and at least two trips to a counter, with the time and queues that this implies. This slowness in the process can be uninviting to the use of public transportation, so a few years ago OTLIS, the entity responsible for the management of ticketing in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (AML) launched some automated kiosks to allow the issuing of cards on the spot. These machines were placed in the Carris station in Arco do Cego, in the Pragal train station and more recently in the Alameda metro station, and have been a success among the many people who have become aware of their existence.
In fact, the service was never widely advertised, as it also lacked maturity. That maturity has now arrived. After two different generations of "VIVA Kiosks", now comes the third generation, this time with the Navigator brand - which in September became the name of the transport card and pass. The Navigator Points are, thus, the evolution of the green and old VIVA Kiosks. There are 18 of them and they started being placed this week in the 18 municipalities that make up AML - one for each municipality. Places where people usually go were chosen, such as shopping centers, municipal markets, libraries, or citizen service points.
Through the Navegante Points it is possible to issue a Navegante card on the spot, which can then be loaded with a Navegante pass at the same machine (alternatively, the pass can be loaded at any automatic machine at a river, train or subway station, at an ATM or at a terminal). in the new Pick Hub application). The key point of the new gadgets is really the issuing of the pass. For this process, only the Citizen's Card is required - from which all the necessary information about the passenger is extracted, including the passenger's photo - from which all the necessary information about the passenger, including the passenger's photo, is extracted and a bank card or cell phone with NFC to pay for the card (it costs 12 euros, the amount corresponding to the urgent issue).
The Navegante card (ex-Lisboa Viva) can be useful to charge the pass, but it has other uses - it can also be used to charge Zapping balance, for the post-paid mode called Viva Go or to use the EMEL's BiciParks.
Location of the Navigator Points
- Alcochete: Municipal Library
- Almada: Fertagus, Pragal Station
- Amadora: Town Hall Building
- Barreiro: Municipal Market 1º de Maio
- Cascais: Citizen Store
- Lisbon: Lisbon City Hall building in Campo Grande and Alameda subway station (former VIVA Kiosk)
- Loures: Loures Shopping
- Mafra: Citizen Store
- Moita: Balcão do Munícipe - Baixa da Banheira
- Montijo: Montijo Municipal Market
- Odivelas: Strada Shopping Center
- Oeiras: Oeiras Parque Shopping Center
- Palmela: Municipal Market of Pinhal Novo
- Seixal: Loja do Munícipe at RioSul Shopping
- Sesimbra: One-stop shop for services in the Presidency Building
- Setúbal: Alegro Setúbal Shopping Center
- Sintra: Parish Council of Rio de Mouro
- Vila Franca de Xira: Municipal Library of Alverca do Ribatejo
Machines designed to be inclusive
Using Ponto Navegante will be easy, fast, and affordable, with no long paper forms to fill out, no need to take a photograph, and no waiting. O software was designed to shorten the time spent using the keyboard - for example, some data is filled in automatically from the Citizen's Card information, so that the user doesn't have to type everything in. The height of the machine was designed to be as accessible as possible, including to people in wheelchairs. But the inclusion efforts were also made at the level of the colors used in the menus and buttons inside the software - The needs of people with any degree of color blindness have been safeguarded.
Ponto Navegante is a service with metropolitan coverage, developed and offered by Transportes Metropolitanos de Lisboa (TML) and by the 18 municipalities of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (AML). TML is an AML body which succeeded OTLIS and which, unlike OTLIS, is more passenger-focused than the transport operating companies. In the 18 municipalities, TML functions as the transportation authority and will be, as of July 2022, the manager of Carris Metropolitana, a single bus transportation brand that will replace the current ones in 15 municipalities (Lisbon, Cascais and Barreiros will keep their companies because they are municipal companies - Carris, MobiCascais and TCB).
TML also manages the ticketing system, including the Navegante. One of its next steps will be to dematerialize the Navegante, through a website (which will replace the VIVA Portal), a mobile application and also a backoffice to manage contacts with passengers and centralize relevant information about them.
TML does not have, for the time being, plans to make available more than one Ponto Navegante per municipality, as the cost of these machines is high and this project was only possible with European funding - as had happened with the VIVA Kiosks. A deconstruction of these machines is being developed, however, thinking, for now, in the Parish Councils. The goal is that, in the future, any parish will be able to issue Navegante cards with a computer and a printer. In development is also an alarm system that allows to digitally obtain problems that are occurring on a machine in order to quickly deal with their resolution. It would be interesting if the future transportation portal would make available a status of each machine, so that, in case one is broken, the person can avoid unnecessary travel.
With the arrival of the new Navegante Points, the old VIVA Kiosks will be adapted to the new software and the new brand. This is the case of the existing machine in the Alameda subway, which will soon be adapted. The one at Pragal station, in Almada, is already one of the new Pontos Navegante. TML told us that the VIVA Kiosk at Arco do Cego has been removed and will not be replaced.
How do the Navegante Points work?
What is needed:
- Citizen Card
- Bank card (or NFC mobile/watch) - payments are supported contactless
How it is processed:
- Enter your Citizen Card, the data is automatically collected (including the photo).
- Enter your zip code to have your address automatically filled in.
- You accept the terms and conditions for issuing and using the Navegante card.
- Fill in your e-mail address to receive the invoice
- Make the payment with a bank card or payment method contactless.
- Wait a few seconds and take out your new Navegante card.
