Lisbon Metropolitan / Facebook
Ideas presented by Zero for the metro in Lisbon. Healthcare, cleaning, logistics or hospitality workers would appreciate it.
At a stage when the war in Iran is driving up fuel pricesthe environmental association Zero presented several ideas about the Lisbon Metro.
This Friday, the environmental association defended bringing forward the daily opening of the São Paulo Metro to 5:30 am, strengthening the offer and improving interfaces and stations.
The association believes that cities must have public transport networks capable of offering an alternative to the car.
Zero recommends that the new administration of the São Paulo Metro bring forward the opening hours opening from the network to 5:30 am or even at 5h00, allowing to guarantee an alternative public transport.
In his opinion, the current opening at 6:30 am does not respond to the needs of workers who start their working day before that time, in essential sectors such as the health, and cleaning, and logistics or the hospitality.
Acácio Pires, from Zero, says that “other operators of the transport network in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area have noticed this discrepancy in scheduleswhich means that many people who work in sectors such as hotels, infrastructure, office hygiene and various facilities in the city of Lisbon, health sectors, use these public transports or, when they don’t use them, they are forced to use alternative means”.
“For this reason, we would need this reinforcement, by opening the Metro earlier, so that these people can use it more easily and make the public transport system more attractive”, he commented, in .
Other ideas
Therefore, it also advises correction of the undersizing of the offer, especially in the section of yellow line between Campo Grande and Odivelas on weekdays.
“On weekdays, between 10 am and 4:45 pm, there are, on average, intervals between trains of around 11 minutes in this section, a value clearly inadequate for an urban metro service at this time,” it says in the note.
The situation, he considers, is especially serious on the Yellow line due to the operational model in force, in which trains from Rato end alternately in Campo Grande, only continuing alternately to Odivelas.
“In practice, this means that only half of the trains continuously serve the stretch to Odivelas”, says Zero, adding that this model is “unacceptable, as all trains on the Yellow line should continue to Odivelas, guaranteeing decent service levels in an area with around 200 thousand inhabitants”.
The association also advises Metro to “significantly improve the reliability of escalators e elevators that support reduced mobility, in addition to other improvements at stations, namely there is no early closure of access”.
“Zero recognizes that the Lisbon Metro faces constraints real problems, namely the shortage of train drivers, the need for strong improvements in the communication and signaling system and limitations in terms of available rolling stock”, admits the association, considering, however, that “these limitations do not fully explain or excuse the problems highlighted”.
This, he adds, is because the “situations observed result from management options and operating models adopted.”
In this context, the environmental association considers that the Metro “has an opportunity to reassess priorities, correct operational flaws and re-establish service levels compatible with the public and structuring function of the metro in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, requiring funding from the Government compatible with this mission”.
