New Metro trains have already drove towards the carbon goals and social sustainability

At 11:00 a.m. this Wednesday, the Metro do Porto transported the first passengers on the new trains. The first voyage carried the Prime Minister, the Mayor of Porto and the ministers of the Environment, Presidency and Finances to Casa da Música and opened way for the transport of around 80 million passengers towards the goal of carbon neutrality, but also social and economic sustainability.

“This major intervention in public transport will change our cities paradigm, it will guarantee the environmental sustainability we all talk about, but there is another sustainability, the social and economic one”, highlighted Rui Moreira.

The 18 new CT trains of Metro do Porto (15 of them already working), an investment of 56 million euros, financed by the Fundo Ambiental and Programa Operacional Sustentabilidade e Eficiência no Uso de Recursos, are the first to start operating, but the acquisition of another 22 more has also already been authorized, for 74 million euros.

For the Mayor, this increase in capacity is “necessary in view of growing demand”. Despite the “constraints of building a metro network in the city”, Rui Moreira assures that “public transport is, for us, a priority” and reinforces that the commitment is “crucial” for people to have a “reliable public transport, with great quality and at an affordable price”.

“When we have this network ready and complete, it will certainly be, a huge gain for the population, for the future of our city”, believes the mayor.

Investment in Metro do Porto is an investment in those who live the city

Showing himself “very grateful” for being in Porto in the several moments that culminated in this first trip, the Prime Minister guaranteed that the investment being made in Metro do Porto, including trains, extensions, and new lines, “is not an investment in a public institution. It is an investment in a public transport service provided for all the citizens”.

“The money that reaches Metro do Porto does not stay there, it is an investment for all who live, work or visit” the city, reinforced António Costa, certain that “in order to transform the mobility paradigm, we do not simply extend the networks, each user needs to feel that the price is more affordable and that the journey is more comfortable”.

The Prime Minister also looks at this bet from the environmental point of view. Mentioning examples in which the country is at the forefront of its commitment to Carbon neutrality, António Costa recalls, however, that “this goal cannot be achieved by standing still. It is achieved by making the investments we are making in the area of energy but also in mobility”.

Better behaviours for better mobility

In the same sense, the Minister for the Environment also considered that “for the country, for the environment, to improve the quality of life in Porto, these investments are crucial.”

Recalling how “around five billion euros of investment” are “committed, by 2030” in public transport, Duarte Cordeiro defends the need to “change what our behaviours are to reach the environmental goals”.

The Minister considers that “we are beginning to see the light regarding the investments we have planned, the implementation specifically, of the reinforcement of the public transport fleet and that allow us to aspire to the purpose of adding users to public transports, who can, in a comfortable and fast way liberating themselves from other mobility forms.

18 new vehicles serve 80 million passengers

From Metro do Porto, the president of the board of directors assumed that “this is a very important moment”. “We are talking of 18 vehicles that will add supply capacity to the company”, assures Tiago Braga, adding that “we will be able to reach, practically 80 million clients this year”.

Council of Ministers in the country’s great development centre

Asked about the choice of the city to host the last Council of Ministers in which we are in full capacity”, António Costa stated that “we could not fail to do so in what is one of the great centres of development in our country”.

“I swear we did not come to occupy, it is not a centralizing action, but it is, particularly symbolic because Porto is, not only the North’s capital, the Invicta, but it is certainly the capital of decentralization”, considers the Prime Minister.