The vice-president of the city council and head of the Mobility department, Filipe Anacoreta Correia (CDS-PP), said that the contracting of STCP follows the RESTART project - Masterplan for Lisbon’s Multimodal Mobility Hubs, which was developed by EMEL - Lisbon Municipal Mobility and Parking Company to “conduct an assessment of bus terminals”.

“Following this work, it was planned to develop an execution project for the future [Sete Rios bus] terminal. A company was identified that we believed has the competence to exercise the work”, said Filipe Anacoreta Correia, referring to STCP, the company that operates the buses and trams that run in the city of Porto.

“We have to acknowledge that the situation of bus terminals in Lisbon is frankly bad and insufficient”, stated Anacoreta Correia, adding that the municipality, “in the recent past, not only did not reinforce these bus terminals, but it also acted against them”, by reducing the area in Sete Rios next to the Zoo, by eliminating them in Praça de Espanha, as well as by carrying out interventions in Areeiro and Campo Grande.

“In recent years, bus terminals have been experiencing major political upheavals and in the recent past, under the last government, this is a fact. This was one of the areas that were most penalised, in total contradiction to the valorisation of public transport, the recommendation to create alternatives so that people do not come to the city by car”, he stressed.

The CDS-PP mayor argued that solutions must be found to resolve the situation, indicating that what was done in the past “was very bad” and “such a thorough review of this matter cannot be done quickly”.

The RESTART project aims to serve as a tool for rethinking and planning the implementation of bus terminals in Lisbon, with a view to having “satisfactory intermodal terminals in line with those found in other European cities”.

According to information from EMEL, RESTART is coordinated by the Lisbon City Council and has a total budget of 864,533 euros, financed by the European CEF – Connecting Europe Facility programme, with EMEL being responsible for the overall management of the project.