Children up to 18 years old ride free on transit in Porto

The Municipal Executive unanimously adopted the extension of free ride transit, the existing "Porto.13-15" to children up to 18 years old that reside in Porto. 

The investment by the Municipality is budgeted at 1.2 million euros per year, and it represents an addition of 90 thousand euros per month regarding the first year of application of that measure.

In return for this increase, Porto City Hall will only pay the rides actually taken by free transit users (aka Andante).

The first year of implementation of this free transit ticket, exclusive to the Municipality of Porto, for children aged 13 to 15, Porto City Hall had taken on the full cost with requested transit tickets. Henceforth, the free transit ticket for youth in Porto will be implemented differently, and the Municipality only pays the rides effectively taken by youth, which made it possible to extend the policy to children up to 18 years old.

"From now on, we are only going to pay the rides the students take; previously this was not the case purely for technical and operational reasons", informed the councillor for Transports, Cristina Pimentel, in a private meeting of the Municipal Executive, held on 22nd June 2020.

Pimentel also furthered that this was the agreement between Porto City Hall and TIP Intermodal Transports of Porto, which will be in place shortly.

During that meeting, Mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira recalled that this free transit extension meets his one year long expectations of extending the free transit policy for youngsters in the city, ever since the implementation of the "Porto.13-15" fare and, as is the case, this policy were relevant and the financial figures to implement such measure were not substantially higher.

As the expenditure forecast was "realistic and thorough", there is an opportunity to upgrade this municipal policy. Also, the accession to the transport ticket was around 50% of the estimated population, informed the councillor.

This measure reveals the commitment with sustainability, one of the pillars of the municipal strategy for the current mandate. Such policy also boosts territory competiveness and is aligned with decarbonisation policies.