This Friday, the PSD requested parliamentary hearings from Environment Minister Duarte Cordeiro and the Metropolitano de Lisboa administration to clarify the possibility of changes to the Ring Line under construction allowed this week by the government.
In an address to the chairman of the parliamentary committee on economics, the Social Democrats welcome the change, but consider “this way of planning and programming work incomprehensible”, which they say means “absolute disorientation and haste in carrying out this process.”
It is important for the PSD to clarify “what changes are needed in the original design” and “how this will affect the execution time of the relevant works and the costs associated with this possible change”, justifying the hearing requests from the Metropolitano de Lisbon administration and the Minister of the Environment and fight climate change Duarte Cordeiro.
On Tuesday, the government acknowledged that the operation of the future Metropolitano de Lisboa loop line could be carried out “on 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.
The Ministry of Environment and Climate Action said in a statement that traffic on the Circle Line may pass through an operation “commonly referred to as ‘around the circle’ or a combination of these types of operations.”
The work to build the Circle Line was announced on 8 May 2017 by the company’s chairman, Vítor Domingues dos Santos, at a press conference attended by then-Environment Minister João Pedro Matos Fernández and then-Mayor of Lisbon Fernando Medina.
The Circle Line has been heavily debated by user movements and political parties, with even the Assembly of the Republic recommending that the project be abandoned.
In September 2021, the then PSD candidate for the Lisbon Chamber and current President Carlos Moedas proposed a “loop” line solution.
Earlier this month, Lumiara Parish Council President Ricardo Mexia (SDP) defended the same idea.
The expansion of the Circle Line, which is expected to open in 2024, has a total investment of EUR 331.4 million. 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.