The government acknowledged on Tuesday that the work of the future Metropolitano de Lisboa loop line could be carried out “around the ring”, without transfers at the Campo Grande station for passengers on the yellow line, citing the company’s decision.
The operation of the Circle Line, as defined, provides that passengers leaving Odivelas, Senhor Roubado, Ameixoeira, Lumiar, Quinta das Conchas and Telheiras stations will have to transfer to the train at Campo Grande if they want to go to other areas of Lisbon.
With “circular” circulation, this overload is no longer necessary, and the train departing from the future Yellow Line continues to move along the new circle line.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Action said traffic on the Circle Line could go through an operation “commonly referred to as ‘in a loop’ or a combination of these types of operations.”
“The decision on the operating model, simple or combined, will be determined in due course by the Metropolitano de Lisboa, supported by demand and operation studies that will confirm this,” he added.
The work to build the Circle Line was announced on May 8, 2017 by the company’s chairman, Vítor Domingues dos Santos, at a press conference attended by then-Environment Minister João Pedro Matos Fernandez and then-Mayor of Lisbon Fernando Medina.
On that day, the extension of the Rato station to Cais do Sodre was announced, with two new stations at Estrela and Santos, thus connecting the Yellow and Green lines, “closing the ring and turning it into a single ring line”.
The extension will be through a two-kilometre tunnel to Estrela and from there to Santos, with the final link between Santos and Cais do Sodre being an open-air facility.
The circle line has been controversial from user movements and political parties, and has even received a recommendation from the Assembly of the Republic (AR) to abandon the project.
In September 2021, the then PSD candidate for the Lisbon Chamber and current President Carlos Moedas proposed a “loop” line solution.
In other words, “turn the Circle Line and the future Yellow Line into a single circle line (Odivelas, Campo Grande, Rato, Cais do Sodre, Alameda, Campo Grande, Telleiras) in order to maintain a direct connection (without transfers) from Odivelas” . , north of Lisbon and Telleiras to the city center.”
Earlier this month, Lumiara Parish Council President Ricardo Mexia (SDP) defended the same idea.
The expansion of the circular line, which is expected to open in 2024, is planned for a total investment of 331.4 million euros. However, in December 2018, the cost of the work was fixed at 210 million euros, and in June 2021 the cost was changed to 240 ME.
In December, the government justified the revision of the investment to 331.4 million euros on “various twists and turns” in the course of the work that could not have been foreseen, “such as geological features not discovered during the surveys carried out and non-compliance between the cadastral surveys and the survey work that preceded the work” , which forced “temporary eviction, expropriation and strengthening of existing buildings.”