Setubalenses will continue to pay less to ride municipal public transport. The €10 discount on the Setúbal Municipal Navegante pass had been an anti-inflation measure for 2023 but will remain in force next year.
Setúbal City Council has decided extend the 10 €/month discount on the municipal public transport pass to 2024. This means that the Navegante Municipal Setúbal will continue to cost €20/month, giving access not only to all buses in the municipality but also to the train. After a year, this discount will represent a saving of 120 €.
This discount is valid on any type of pass Navegante Municipal of Setúbal and can be combined with other existing discounts. This means that those who pay the usual amount for the pass - 30 €/month - will get it for 20 €/month. But those in a social bracket can have their monthly transport pass reduced to 12.5 €/month ("Social+ B" bracket) or even €5/month ("Social+ A" bracket). Households of any size, on the other hand, get a pass for €50/month instead of the usual €60.
During 2023, the Setúbal council discount was also valid for students. But in 2024, it will no longer make sense because all students in the metropolitan area up to the age of 23 (or 24 in the case of medical and architecture students) will benefit from free public transport, according to the already approved State Budget(The measure only awaits the publication of the corresponding decree-law).
57% more passes sold
At the end of 2022, the Setúbal City Council announced this €10 discount on the municipal transport pass as a measure within the framework of the "a package of extraordinary municipal measures, (...) aimed at helping families, institutions and companies in the area to withstand the economic and social crisis caused by rising inflation and interest rates". The extension of the benefit will be the result of its success.
According to municipal data provided to LPP, in one year there was an increase of 57% in demand for the Navegante Municipal of Setúbal: if 2,535 passes had been sold in October 2022, that figure rose to 3,986 in October this year. It was among the poorest that the measure had the greatest impact, with an increase in the number of people taking up the transport pass: in fact, the monthly growth rate was 18% in the "Social+ B" bracket (which includes, for example, the unemployed and the elderly with low pensions) and 15% in the "Social+ A" bracket (which includes, for example, beneficiaries of the Social Insertion Income).
The fare reduction in Setúbal was formalized through an agreement between the town council, AML (Área Metropolitana de Lisboa) and TML (Transportes Metropolitanos de Lisboa). Once again, in 2024, the municipality will finance the measure by handing over to TML, which manages Navegante ticketing throughout the Lisbon metropolitan area, the amounts that residents are not paying because they have the discount.
