The Government has approved a new legal regime for road terminals with the aim of ensuring fair and transparent access to operators.
© MAGALI COHEN/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images
22/10/2026
by
Lusa
O Government today approved a new legal regime for public passenger road terminals, which aims to ensure access for operators under “quite, transparent and non-discriminatory” conditions.
According to the statement of the Council of Ministers, the new scheme “unifies the rules of installation and management, strengthens the neutrality of managers” and provides for the creation of a national platform with information on terminal capacity, schedules and prices.
The diploma also establishes inspection mechanisms, with the aim of promoting “competition, quality of service and better conditions of safety, comfort and information for passengers”.
The approval of the diploma comes after a three-year dispute between FlixBus and the Express Network on access to the Sete Rios road terminal in Lisbon, which reached the courts.
The German operator started using that terminal on 29 September, but only with 23 daily hours, which, according to the company, represented less than 2% of the infrastructure capacity.
At the time, FlixBus reiterated the demand for full access to the terminal, considering that the dispute was far from resolved and criticizing the impossibility of operating between 16:30 and 20:30, one of the periods of greatest demand.
“ This is just a first step and the issue of access to Sete Rios is still far from resolved ", said the operator.
The entry of FlixBus into the terminal took place more than six months after a decision of the Lisbon Administrative Court, which determined the immediate granting of access to the infrastructure, limited to the capacity actually available.
In turn, the Express Network ensured that it gave “immediate access” on May 22 and that the operator had not started the operation until August “by its own responsibility”.
Flixbus contested this version, saying that “it has always made it clear that it needs a minimum period of 20 days, after final confirmation of access to the terminal and correcting the validity of the capacity declarations, to carry out all the necessary changes” in the system and prepare the transfer of the operation” from the Gare do Oriente to Sete Rios.