Carris Metropolitana, which has been operating throughout the Lisbon metropolitan area (AML) since January, promises more schedules and less waiting time for buses. But three months later, complaints from commuters, who arrive every day late for work, appointments or school and say service has deteriorated, are multiplying. Transportes Metropolitanos de Lisboa, which runs Carris Metropolitana, justifies the failures with “complexity of operation”, lack of drivers and increased traffic, but expects the situation to improve in early April.
Ground transportation operators in Greater Lisbon got together under one brand, first on the south bank of the Tagus River, in the summer of last year, and then on the north bank, in January. The implementation process proved difficult from the start, with bus cancellations, delays and waits of two to four hours. Roy Lobo, director of Transportes Metropolitanos de Lisboa, told JN that “it’s common for there to be problems” with this kind of restructuring.
“It will always, inevitably, be a very complex process that not everything goes well because of the dimensions of the challenge of standardizing lines, schedules and transfers,” he explains, adding that some European cities, “French for example,” have felt the same challenges.
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