Since Germany experimented with passes at 9 euros for
regional trains, the measure has been suggested for Portugal. Livre is one of
the parties that presented a proposal in Parliament on this matter. Even
without rejecting the idea “from the start”, the minister responsible for CP,
Pedro Nuno Santos, explained why the measure could not be applied to the
national rail network.
“On the railway, unfortunately, we have exhausted our
capacity. If tomorrow we had zero price, the capacity of transport to receive
more passengers would be almost nil”, said the Minister of Infrastructure and
Housing, Pedro Nuno Santos, in response to the deputy from Livre, Rui Tavares,
during the hearing in the specialty related to the Budget of the State for
2023.
Pedro Nuno Santos detailed that there are “completely full”
trains on long-distance services between Porto and Lisbon and that there is
also overcrowding on trips within the Lisbon and Porto regions. It would also
be necessary to “conjugate with the social passes” of the inter-municipal
communities and metropolitan areas and also apply the due compensation to CP.
For 2023, it is planned to freeze the prices of public
transport passes and CP tickets in all services. The exception is the Alfa
Pendular trains, CP's commercial service and without the right to compensation
from the State.