Lisbon Municipal Assembly ‘publicly condemns’ red line metro extension process

Lisbon’s municipal assembly approved this Thursday a motion to “publicly denounce” the way in which the Metropolitano red line extension process has been managed, including for not allowing an instructive and informed debate.

The motion submitted by the municipal group of the Liberal Initiative (IL) was adopted point by point, with the public denunciation proposal approved by the votes of the PS and two independent deputies from Cidadãos por Lisboa (elected by the PS/Livre coalition). ), with no abstentions and votes for BE, Livre, PEV, PCP, PSD, PAN, IL, MPT, PPM, Aliança, CDS-PP and Chega.

“This project, with a budget of around 300 million euros, absolutely structural for the city of Lisbon, cannot be managed in this way and with such a lack of transparency. A public company such as Metro de Lisboa cannot act in such a way that clarifications are concealed and that conditions a genuine public and informed discussion,” the proposal says, calling for an enlightening debate with the public and its representative bodies.

Unanimously, the municipal deputies allowed “to demand that the Metropolitano de Lisbon and the supervisory ministry make public all studies, analyzes and options concerning the route of the red line.”

Since the PS voted against and the rest voted in favor, the Municipal Assembly decided to ask the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change to ensure that the organizations under its tutelage “act in accordance with the constitutionally enshrined principle of open government, striving for the transparency of processes and decisions.”

Representing the Lisbon Chamber, Executive Vice President Filipe Anacoreta Correia (CDS-PP) underlined the importance of extending the Metro Red Line to the west of the city, citing that it is a work “desired by the population and of great importance in the context of mobility policy”.

Regarding urban issues, Anacoreta Correia emphasized that “they are always a subject of serious discussion” and stated that “there must be solutions” to ensure that the work is carried out “during a difficult period” so that the same thing that happens does not happen, for example, with a solution for a future airport in the Lisbon area.

“We don’t want to delay” work to expand the redline, the vice president stressed, citing “the council was involved, but the specific options were also very defined in front of that executive,” so the mission now is to narrow down to minimize impact and deepen improvements.

While deploring the lack of greater council involvement, the mayor of CDS-PP noted that the municipal executive is not represented on the Board of Directors of the Metropolitano de Lisboa and this situation has already been turned over to the government.

On November 10, the association Fórum Cidadania Lx, Quercus – National Association for the Conservation of Nature and Casa de Goa – The Association of Goa, Damao and Diu announced the filing of an injunction against the Portuguese Environmental Protection Agency (APA) and Metropolitano de Lisboa in connection with the red line extension project subway, which he considers “illegal”.

With a €304 million investment in the Recovery and Resilience Plan 2021-2026, the extension of the line includes the construction of four new stations, namely Amoreiras, Campo de Ourique, Infante Santo and Alcântara.

As for the future Campo de Ourique station, the inhabitants of this parish formed the “Save Jardim da Parada” movement in protest against the place chosen by the metropolitan.

In response, the public transport company confirmed the option to build the Campo de Ourique station at Jardim da Parada, but guaranteed that the space would retain “all of its current characteristics” once the work was completed.