The Green Rail Pass represented more than 13 million euros in revenue for CP in the first year in force, 120,000 new pass customers and around 650,000 titles sold, the Government said this Tuesday.
On the day that marks one year since the entry into force of the Green Rail Pass, worth 20 euros per month, the Ministry of Infrastructure considered, in a statement, that these figures prove that the creation of a “flexible, accessible and above all digital product” is a “recipe for success”.
According to CP – Comboios de Portugal, also in a statement, in September more than 67 thousand subscriptions were sold, a ‘record’ monthly value, and, in one year, almost 2.2 million reservations were made on Intercidades trains, with around 28% of passes being purchased by new customers.
Additionally, the railway carrier pointed out, the data reveals that around half of passengers traveling with a Green Rail Pass used more than one service.
“We are successfully achieving the objective of bringing more people to public transport in order to also achieve the decarbonization goals”, highlighted the Minister of Infrastructure, Miguel Pinto Luz.
When the measure was announced, the Government said that CP would be compensated 18.9 million euros per year, via a public service contract with the State, for the loss of revenue with the entry into force of the Green Railway Pass.
The CP Workers’ Committee considered, on October 8, 2024, that the compensation provided by the Government for the company is insufficient, a statement that led to “surprise and repudiation” from the president of CP, Pedro Moreira, stating that this value was calculated accurately by the company.
This year, on April 14, at a lunch-debate promoted by the International Club of Portugal, in Lisbon, the Minister of Infrastructure said that, if the trend of increasing revenues in the first two months of the year continues, he will not need any compensation for the pass.
The Green Rail Pass replaced the national rail pass and allows travel on regional, interregional (2nd class), urban trains in Lisbon and Porto (outside the areas covered by metropolitan intermodal passes), urban trains in Coimbra and intercity trains (2nd class, with mandatory and advance seat reservation).
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