Tiago Petinga / LUSA
The Minister of the Presidency, Antônio Leitão Amaro
The government presented measures that, it claims, respond to the train drivers’ demands – which will stop this Friday.
The Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing (MIH) will move forward with several measures to enhance railway safetywhich says they give response to the claims of the machinists, who have scheduled a strike for this Friday, according to a statement.
In the note, the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, Miguel Pinto Luz, “regrets the decision of the National Union of Train Drivers of the Portuguese Railways (SMAQ) to maintain the train drivers’ union for December 6, 2024, which will have a negative impact in the circulation of trains and consequently in the life of thousands of citizens using public transport”.
According to the guardianship, “during the negotiations between the two parties, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing everything did to meet the demands on railway safety presented by SMAQ and, thus, avoid this stoppage”.
Even so, despite the union having decided to go ahead with the strike, the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing says he has provided “responses to the union’s demands that were at the origin of this strike”, having “issued an order mandating the responsible entities to proceed to a set of initiatives that aim to monitor and improve the safety, reliability and efficiency of the Portuguese railway system”.
According to the guardianship, the measures include “reinforcing the use of the ATP (Automatic Train Protection) system in vehicles that circulate on the National Railway Network”, “reducing the use of Temporary Speed Limitations, favoring greater use of blue periods provided for in the Network Directory” and for the “continuous improvement of the Safety Management Systems of the Infrastructure Manager and railway operators”.
The Ministry will also move forward with the “definition of performance indicators to monitor the progress and effectiveness of measures” and with “strengthening safety conditions regarding the signaling and protection of Temporary Speed Limitations, through the review and clarification of regulations on security in place.”
The guardianship highlighted that in the negotiation meetings “the main causes for the high number of accidents on the railway”, that is, “run overs (52%), accidents at level crossings (38%), collisions with objects (7%) and derailments due to degradation of infrastructure (3%), according to data from the annual safety report from the Institute of Mobility and Transport (IMT)”, as well as “reiterated the rejection of other causalities”.
“I have deep respect for train drivers and full confidence in professionals in the railway sector. Investment in modernizing the railway is one of the priorities of this Government, which is committed to ensuring a quality offer of public transport for all citizens”, stated Miguel Pinto Luz, quoted in the same note.
Nothing happened
SMAQ, the train drivers’ union, called a general strike for tomorrow, Friday, due to the lack of clarification from the Government on relationship between railway accidents and alcohol rate of these workers and to demand adequate safety conditions.
At issue are the statements made by the Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, in a press conference after a Council of Ministers, in which he stated that “it is not very well known, but Portugal has the second worst performance in terms of the number of accidents that occur per kilometer of railway” and that it has “a performance of around seven times worse than the first half of European countries”, explaining that the Government approved a proposed law that reinforces “the administrative offense measures for drivers of this railway transport, creating a ban on driving under the influence of alcohol”.
The strike is already taking effect today and will also be felt on Saturday, due to the train drivers’ shifts in the seven companies where the union has representation: CP – EPE, Fertagus, MTS – Metro do Sul do Tejo, ViaPorto, Captrain, Medway and IP – Infrastructures of Portugal.
But this Thursday the Minister of the Presidency, who classified as “unprecedented” the train drivers’ strike, argued that the issue is a protest against something that didn’t happen.
“[…] At no time, and this was clarified several times by me and the Minister of Infrastructure, the Government establishes or has established causalities”, said the Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, in response to journalists at the end of the Council of Ministers, in Lisbon.
António Leitão Amaro cited a communication from the union to his office, in which the SMAQ recognizes that the Minister of the Presidency “has not made such a statement directly”.
