“I’m going to Sao Bento,” says Pedro Nuno on the train between Marco de Canaveses and Porto.

The Secretary General of the PS announced this Monday that he was traveling to São Bento as part of a train trip that was destined for the station of the same name in Porto, where he wanted to demonstrate the work done and protect investments in the railway.

On the train that departed this Monday at 9:13 from Marco de Canaveses, heading to the Porto – São Bento station, users were surprised by the entrance into the carriages of the entourage of Pedro Nuno Santos, who wanted to show the work done on the electrified and modernized line of this government .

After speaking with several users who praised the reduction of train fares to 40 euros and the increase in train frequency, Pedro Nuno Santos sat next to the head of the PS list for Porto, Francisco Assis.

“I’m going to Sao Bento,” he joked in response to reporters, a pun between the name of the prime minister’s official residence in Lisbon and the name of his destination station in Porto.

“Now I’m going to Sao Bento. March 10, if the Portuguese also want. And we are working to mobilize them,” he added, stressing that he has “a huge desire to continue to transform the country so that people can live better in Portugal.”

Regarding the railway, an area he oversaw as Minister of Infrastructure between 2019 and 2022, Pedro Nuno Santos said he wants “people to move from individual transport to public transport” because it is “one of the biggest contributions in the fight against climate change.”

“We have spent decades disinvesting, closing lines, sadly allowing the railway to fall into disrepair. Under this last government we began to recover. We have started a path that cannot be solved overnight, but this path of recovery has already begun,” he emphasized.

Stressing that the reduction in ticket prices “must continue,” the PS chief also stressed that more trains are needed, since the last ones were purchased “more than 20 years ago” and some have been in circulation for 50 years.

“We have started restoring many abandoned trains across the country, we have also bought carriages from Spain which we have refurbished and we have issued a tender for the largest train purchase ever: 117,” he said, adding that if he is the government, he hopes he can ease congestion on lines connecting suburbs to city centers before the end of the next Legislature.

Asked if he was afraid that it would be Luis Montenegro’s government that would initiate these investments, Pedro Nuno Santos replied: “We are working to win the elections and we have felt great strength, enthusiasm, enthusiasm from the people.”

Already answering a question about his last train trip, Pedro Nuno Santos replied that he did not remember, but stated that he travels by train, despite the fact that he does not have this means of transportation between home and work in Lisbon.

In these short statements, the Socialist leader refused to comment on the words of the mayor of Visel Vitor Hugo Salgado, who the day before, at a rally attended by Pedro Nuno Santos, accused Marcelo Rebelo de Souza of intending to create conditions, the day after the elections, for the agreement between Chega and the PSD. Several people applaud the President of the Republic.