3.3 Public Transport
Lisbon's buses, trams and funiculars are operated by Carris (pronounced Ka-reesh).
Ferries are operated by Transtejo and Soflusa, and use the joint acronym TTSL.
The Metro is operated by Metropolitano de Lisboa.
Suburban trains are operated by Comboios de Portugal (CP), except those that link north and south banks of the river via the Ponte 25 de Abril, operated by Fertagus.
Ticketing
See Section 3.5 for the Lisboa Card.
If you’re going to make more than very occasional use of Lisbon’s public transport system, DO NOT pay for each journey in cash via the driver, or by contactless. JUST DON’T. It will work out a lot more expensive, especially if you use trams, or any of the funiculars.
One-off journeys cost €3.20 for trams, €4.20 for two trips on a funicular, and €6.10 for two trips on the Santa Justa lift. A 24-hour ticket for all buses, trams, metros, funiculars and that lift costs €7. Have a think about it.
Ticket machines - which will give you instructions in English - can be found inside any Metro station. You add €0.50 to the cost of your first order, which covers the cost of a Navegante (pronounced Navegant, and NOT Navegant-AY) card. You’ll also see people carrying plastic versions of that card - they will be long term visitors, or residents. Like me.
Add to that the cost of a 24-hour ticket, or one or more single tickets at €1.85 each. Alternatively, for instance if you’re not making many trips in a 24-hour period, add credit and use the card in Pay-As-You-Go mode. This is called ZAPPING. It has the benefit of being usable across Greater Lisbon, including the south side of the river, and ferries.
A single Zapping trip on bus, tram or metro costs €1.66; trips on ferries or local trains may cost more. South side buses may cost less. Not sure how much credit you’ve got? One of those ticket machines will tell you.
Validate your ticket before travelling - either at the entrance of buses and older trams, barriers at Metro stations, barriers at ferry terminals, or on board the low-floor trams on line 15. Ticket inspectors operate on buses and trams, and the guard will check tickets on local trains.
THE TICKET VALIDATING MACHINE
Press the chip part of your card gently against the LOWER part of the validator. That’s the LOWER part of it. DON’T wave it about aimlessly. DON’T see how far away you can hold it and still get the OK from it.
Trams
Lisbon used to have an extensive tram network. Not any more: all that is left are six routes, some retained because of their tourist potential.
In Portugal, a tram is called an Elétrico - an Electric. Hence tram routes use the letter E added to the actual route number. So 15E and 28E, for instance.
You will encounter two types of trams in Lisbon; the older four-wheelers which operate hillier routes, and modern low-floor articulated vehicles which cover Line 15. The supposedly older trams use the bodies from 1930s cars, but under the floor are mid-1990s. They have modern electrics and are known as Elétricos Remodelados, or remodelled trams.
If you’re going from the old downtown out to Belém, use the 15. Now that Carris have taken delivery of new low floor trams from Spanish manufacturer CAF, the service has become much more reliable, and the substitute buses, which took a long, long time to load at places like Cais do Sodré, have gone.
The 15 also passes the LX Factory, and MAAT.
CONTACTLESS: you can pay for one-off journeys on the 15 with contactless PROVIDING the tram working the service is one of the new CAF vehicles - numbered between 601 and 615.
OK let’s talk about the 28. Because we need to talk about the 28.
All the guidebooks say ride the 28. So, despite trams running every few minutes during the day, it gets rammed full. And yes, sometimes people get pickpocketed on those full-up trams, although the bad faith scare merchants claiming everyone who rides a 28 gets dipped are talking out of their backsides.
If you’re going to do a 28, do it early in the day. The queue to get aboard at Largo Martim Moniz becomes truly biblical by the afternoon. For actual residents who need to use that tram - oh yeah, never thought of them - things are so bad that, on weekdays only, there is a minibus service (the 734) that follows the same route as Tram 28 from Martim Moniz up the hill to Graça.
Also, if you’ve endured the crush all the way to Prazeres, and don’t fancy a repeat performance, you can now take the 25 back down the hill - it terminates at Praça da Figueira at present.
Alternatively, board a 12 at Largo do Camões (where they turn back), and that covers the route of the 28 all the way to Martim Moniz, including the best-known part through the Alfama. Get on at Camões, get a seat, no crush.
How full can one of those little trams get? Very. At the front of each tram is the information “LUGARES … 20 SENTADOS … 38 DE PÉ”. That means just 20 seats, and 38 standing. It has, apparently, been worked out that there is enough room for all those standing passengers. The rear platform isn’t too uncomfortable when standing. There are plenty of grab handles, too.
Buses
No-one is going to take on board much information about the Carris bus network with one visit to Lisbon. And buses mostly operate for the benefit of Lisboetas, not tourists. Having said that, there are some services that it pays to know about.
Daytime buses are usually numbered in the 700 series.
Like the 722 and 744, which will take those who don’t like the Metro from the old downtown to the Airport (sorry, no luggage carried except a CabinMax). Or the 759, which takes you from Restauradores to the Tile Museum. Or the 728, which goes from Oriente to Praça do Comércio, Cais do Sodré, and out to Belém (but a different route to the 15 tram).
Also useful for Metro-sceptics is the 736, which runs from Rossio up the Avenida da Liberdade, then up to Saldanha and on to Entrecampos and Campo Grande. Bendy buses, so plenty of room.
Best kept bus secret, though, is the BairroBus. What that?
This is a minibus service, usually on a circular route, which runs around a single neighbourhood, or between two or three neighbourhoods. Frequency is only 20 to 35 minutes, but it may be worth waiting for one. Examples …
10B takes you from Campo Cebolas (near Sul e Sueste bus stops) up the hill to Graça. 13B does something similar from Santa Apolónia.
The 19B runs from the green space that is Campo Mártires Pátria, across to Rato and São Bento, before returning via Principe Real and the top end of the Glória funicular.
The 22B runs from Cais do Sodré up the hill to Largo do Camões, before cutting through the Bairro Alto to Principe Real, then back via São Bento.
BairroBus routes tend to operate, roughly, from 0800 hours to 2000 hours.
One useful minibus service in the 700 series is the 773, from the back of Alcântara-Terra station up the big climb through Necessidades, then via Estrela, Lapa, São Bento, Praça Flores and Principe Real before terminating at Rato. It’s pretty frequent, too. Also, it can get busy.
Funiculars and Lifts
Let’s talk about the Elevador de Santa Justa. Because we need to talk about the Elevador de Santa Justa.
It’s the only one of the Elevadores that is a lift, as opposed to a funicular. And it connects the Baixa Pombalina to the higher Carmo neighbourhood.
Location HERE.
HOWEVER. The queues get horrendous, and the observation deck appears to be permanently closed, probably for safety reasons. Back in the day there was a café up there - I kid you not. It was somewhere you and your partner might visit at the end of the afternoon, to stand looking out over the river at dusk and letting the mood take hold.
But current levels of tourism have put a stop to that. It was for a time, but sadly, not for all time, and most importantly, not for the time that is now. A better and (presently) less crowded option for looking out over the Baixa, and indeed over the Praça do Comércio, is to take the lift up to the Arco da Rua Augusta, which is not covered by your transport ticket, but isn’t expensive.
Funiculars
Elevador da Bica, with split level cars, takes you from just behind the Time Out Market and Cais do Sodré up to Calhariz. There may be a queue to go up; going down, you can just turn up and get aboard. Location HERE and HERE.
Elevador da Glória runs from Restauradores up to the Rua São Pedro Alcântara - the eastern edge of the Bairro Alto. So it gets busy, and the drivers will enforce the maximum capacity of 42 people. Be patient (it’s far superior to slogging it up the Calçada do Duque and having to negotiate all the outside tables some eateries put out). Location HERE and HERE.
Elevador do Lavra goes from the crossroads of Rua São José and Largo da Anunciada to Rua Câmara Pestana. There may not appear to be much up the top, but go left (Travessa Forno do Torel), then right (Travessa Torel), then left and you’re almost at Campo Mártires Pátria. There is also the Jardim do Torel nearby (turn left exiting the top station). Location HERE and HERE.
The Metro
Let’s talk about the Metro. Because we need to talk about the Metro.
Isn’t the Metro fast, say rather a lot of people. Well, yes and no: the top speed reached is just 45km/h, or for those in the UK, less than 30mph. Which is not so fast. But the trains do that speed without having to indulge in the traffic queues and other snarl-ups on the surface. So it looks fast in comparison.
Trains do not run as frequently as, for instance, the Tube in London. But it still comes out ahead of surface transport on time - mostly. It gets full at peak times. But the problem that anyone less than 100% mobile faces is accessibility, or the supposedly temporary lack of it.
Broken escalators, broken travolators, broken lifts, the Lisbon Metro has them all. Its website is supposed to tell you which lifts are out of service, but don’t rely on it: you might get there expecting a lift to be working, only to see it definitely not working and the sign FORA DE SERVÍÇO helpfully displayed.
Which means it’s not working.
Also, some stations only have step access. The Metro map shows you which are (allegedly) accessible, and which are not.
Having issued the warning, on with the travel information.
Lisbon’s Metro has four lines, which are colour coded: Azul (Blue), Verde (Green), Amarela (Yellow), and Vermelha (Red).
Platform directions feature the end station of each line, so the Linha Azul will show Santa Apolónia and Reboleira, the Linha Verde Cais do Sodré and Telheiras, the Linha Amarela Rato and Odivelas, and the Linha Vermelha São Sebastião and Aeroporto.
All stations have ticket barriers. All have ticket machines which can give instructions in English; many have a ticket office open for at least part of the day, but you may have to queue to use it, especially at the Airport.
Two sounds you need to understand: one, sounded prior to departure from all stations, is the door-close beep-beep. The second, prior to departure from the first station on a train’s journey (like the Airport) is a one-note horn-like tone. Freely translated, that means get aboard PDQ because it’s going.
There is a next station display at the end of each carriage, along with information on connections to other lines or transport services. This is accompanied by an audio message, but don’t bank on hearing it - the background noise in tunnels often drowns it out.
Late evening and short trains warning: most of the time, Metro services are formed of two three-coach sets coupled together to make a six-coach train, which more or less fills the platform.
HOWEVER. After 2100 hours, some routes change to using just one of those three-coach sets. At stations, they will stop at the front end of the platform. If you intend to board a train, wait on that part of the platform. The platform display may warn you in advance that the train has just three coaches.
[HOME]
Comments
Post a Comment