Citizens launch manifesto by public CP and infrastructure

Utoday, in Lisbon, a group of citizens presented a manifesto against the granting of CP's suburban lines to private operators, defending the maintenance of an integrated public railway undertaking, which also includes infrastructure management.

The manifesto was presented this afternoon at the Casa do Alentejo and follows the government's intention to proceed with the granting of suburban lines of CP-Train of Portugal, namely those of the Sintra Line and Cascais, which the subscribers consider profitable and important for the financing of the remaining national railway operation.

“What is happening objectively is that the minister himself [Habitation and Infrastructure] recently spoke about the possibility of granting some lines. This implies dismantling and withdrawing from CP the services that are most profitable ", said Lusa Humberto Costa, spokesman of the manifesto.

In July, the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, Miguel Pinto Luz, said that the sub-concession of railway lines will allow CP to put resources on lines that are less profitable, pointing out the presentation of the lines for September.

According to the minister, Cascais and Sintra lines carry 40 and 99 million passengers per year, respectively, more than half of the 208 million passengers per year transported by CP.

On the occasion, the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing added that the Cascais Line, being segregated from the rest of the railway network, is “in the pole position” so that it can be the first sub-concession line”.

The spokesman for the manifesto “CP Pública Una e Nacional” also gave Fertagus as a negative example, stating that the private concessionaire, which provides railway connections on the south bank of the Tagus, operates with CP trains, in an infrastructure managed by Infrastructures of Portugal (IP).

“What the State is doing is making public the expenditure and delivering the profits to the private,” he criticised, defending a merger between CP and IP and a railway service management that prioritizes the needs of passengers rather than the profitability of the operation.

In the same sense, Catarina Cardoso, coordinator of the CP Workers' Commission and signatory of the manifesto, contested the separation between the railway operation and infrastructure management, considering that the division makes the service “less efficient and more expensive for the public purse”.

“ As it gets torn apart, it's working worse and worse. It is a worse service and is more costly for the public purse ", he said.

The responsible maintained that railway workers know the technical and operational needs of the sector and considered that fragmentation hinders the articulation between the different services.

“ This works better and more efficiently, from an economic point of view, security, on any aspect, when it is unified”, he defended.

In this regard, the trade unionist invoked the railway accident that took place today in the Spanish province of Toledo and what happened in January in the Andalusian locality of Adamuz to support the need for an integration of the railway operation and infrastructure.

“The president of Renfe [Spanish public railway company] said in the commission of inquiry that it makes no sense, given the technical specificity of rail transport, to be separated the operation of the infrastructure. This has a lot of weight and, one day, more weight has for the worst reasons ", pointed out.

At least 68 people died and dozens were injured following a railway accident in Spain, which took place today at Urda station, Toledo province.

A private Iryo train, with 147 passengers, was hit when it was parked on the road to the entrance of the Urda station by a high-speed train from Renfe, which carried 378 passengers.

The collision between the two high-speed trains occurred shortly before the local 09:00 (less than an hour in Lisbon).