Complaints on public transportation in Portugal increased in 2022

Public transportation in Portugal has prompted complaints due to delays and trip cancellations, which has made mobility difficult, leading to long queues.

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Never have passengers registered so many complaints against public transport in the last 7 years, since the Mobility and Transport Authority (AMT) was created.

Remember that "AMT's mission is to regulate and supervise the mobility sector and land, river and rail transport, and their respective infrastructures, and the economic activity in the commercial ports and maritime transport sector". according to Decree-Law No. 78/2014, of 14 May.

The most common reasons for these complaints are trip cancellations and delays, partly justified by a period very marked by strikes, leading to even longer queues. The increased demand for public transport after the pandemic, the lack of drivers and passenger transport vehicles also contributed to the general feeling of discontent.

The degree of dissatisfaction of public transport users has been growing, causing high social unrest. The working population, students and retired people find it very difficult to get around on public transportation in Portugal.

How can a Portuguese person produce if he arrives at work already tired because of the long queues for public transportation, or doesn't arrive when it is cancelled? Or is he stuck for hours in the traffic inside his car?

How can a student attend classes or take exams if public transportation fails?

Seniors are practically forgotten and left to isolate themselves for lack of public transportation.

According to data released by AMT, complaints are mostly based on the National Express Network, the Lisbon Metro and CP, which calls into question the rights of passengers.

62 complaints per day is the average number of complaints registered by passengers in 2022, having increased in relation to previous years. Road and rail passenger transport operators are the main complaint targets, with 66% of the complaints.

According to Pordata, INE and the Census, the total employed population and by means of transport used to get to work reveal the following results.

There was a 5.6% decrease in the working population from 2011 to 2021, standing at 3,805,165 employed people, of which most use their own car to commute to work (2,761,442 employed people). 482,269 people walk to work. Next, the most used means of transport was the bus (206,269), which is significant, although much smaller in number than the automobile. The train is still less used (113,454 people). 

The decrease in the number of employed people using transportation to go to work may also be related to the fact that since the pandemic, telecommuting has emerged, where people do not use any kind of transportation because they simply work at home. By motorcycle or bicycle 84,331 people circulate.

In the Metro, 64,335 employed people were counted in 2021. Finally, the number of employed people who used company public transportation and school transportation added up to 64,820 people. The remaining 27,548 employed persons used alternative means of transportation that do not fit into the above.  

About 72.6% of employed people in Portugal use the car as a means of transportation, considering that some destinations have no public transportation or alternative transportation or would take a long time to get there. But it is also true that the public transportation network is not developed enough to attract more passengers. 

On the other hand, the complaints described here, such as delays, trip cancellations, strikes, lack of drivers or vehicles, make it difficult for more passengers to take public transportation.

In this sense there has been a loss of quality in the mobility of the Portuguese over the last decade.

26 May 2023

Joao Pires