Carris Metropolitana strengthens fleet with 37 electric buses

A Carris Metropolitana starts to count, from Friday, with 37 more electric buses, an investment of 16 million euros, today announced the president of Lisbon Metropolitan Transport (TML).

The announcement was made during a ceremony to present the new Metropolitan Carris fleet at the Lisbon Bus Station in Santa Iria de Azóia, in the municipality of Loures, which included an experimental trip in one of the vehicles.

“ We need more transport. And we have to offer more transportation ", said TML president Carlos Humberto, during the ceremony, defending the strengthening of the public transport offer to meet the needs of the population.

In the end, in statements to journalists, the responsible stressed that the entry of more cars will contribute to increasing the capacity of the operation and to reducing the environmental impact of public transport.

However, the president of TML warned of the difficulties in increasing the supply due to the lack of space in the Lisbon road terminals, pointing out the cases of the East, Sete Rios and Entrecampos.

“ All terminals are struggling and, as I said in my speech, we are not doing a few careers today and a few hours because we have nowhere to stop. It is not safe”, he criticized.

Carlos Humberto also indicated that TML is seeking authorisation from the Court of Auditors to increase the offer, since the limits provided for in the initial tender are no longer sufficient to meet the identified needs.

The person responsible provides that the supply may continue to grow during this year and in 2027, through changes in the network, the creation of services and the strengthening of schedules, although the size of this growth depends on the conditions of circulation, the availability of terminals and the existence of drivers.

The President of TML also advocated the creation of corridors dedicated to public transport and the adoption of solutions to improve bus traffic, including semaphoric priority systems.

With regard to the energy transition, Carlos Humberto de Carvalho indicated that electric buses currently represent about 15% of the Metropolitan Carris fleet, a proportion higher than that recorded at the beginning of the operation.

The responsible pointed out as objective the full electrification of the fleet by 2030, recognizing, however, that the achievement of this goal depends on the investment capacity.

Present at the ceremony, Secretary of State for Mobility, Cristina Pinto Dias, framed the 37 buses in an investment of EUR 16 million, integrated into an amount of EUR 45 million of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) for the renewal of the public transport fleet in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area.

Cristina Pinto Dias also highlighted the importance of renewing the fleet for the decarbonization of transport, considering that “each new bus means a clean trip”.

The governor stressed that the objective is to increase the share of public transport use to more than 20% in 2031, within the framework of sustainable mobility and climate neutrality targets.