Intercity transport starts without an intermodal pass

The new intermunicipal transport system in the Coimbra Region is expected to launch on August 1st without an intermodal pass, after the previous date of July 1st was not met, said the president of that entity.

"The concession will come into effect on August 1st. It's a five-year concession, extendable for a further two years," Emílio Torrão, president of the Coimbra Region Intermunicipal Community (CIM/RC), told Lusa news agency.

Describing the new system as “ a true revolution in road transport” for passengers in the 19 municipalities of the region and connecting them to neighboring regions, Emílio Torrão noted, however, that the operation will start in a monomodal regime (alone), that is, without the single ticket that will also allow the use of the Mondego Metro (when it is operating) and the SMTUC — Municipal Urban Transport Services of Coimbra, as was the wish of the CIM/RC.

He added that the intermodal regime should only be in operation in six months, at the beginning of 2026.

When asked about the cause of the delay (on April 14th he had announced the date of July 1st, with an intermodal pass), Emílio Torrão stressed that the fall of the previous Government “led to a series of incidents” in the establishment of agreements between the various public transport partners, which made it impossible for the intermodal regime to come into operation on the first day of August.

"We have the computer system, we have the equipment, the tickets are all the same, but we had to enter testing, we had to have everything to enter in August and it's not possible ," he lamented.

Therefore, when the Coimbra Region's intermunicipal transport system launches, anyone wishing to use a SMTUC bus will have to purchase a separate ticket, which will no longer be the case when the intermodal pass is in effect.

“It will be six months for us, I can't say for the others, I can't speak for the others,” he stressed.

The mayor also stated that although the ticketing system is identical and compatible with the future regime, it will have to be reconfigured for intermodal transport when it comes into force.

When asked whether the Busway concessionaire (a subsidiary of the Israeli group Afifi, which won the concession worth more than six million euros per year) accepted the system's entry into operation on a monomodal basis and only a larger part would become intermodal, Emílio Torrão noted that the company "is in line, because there will be compensation."

"From CIM's perspective, it's more important to have a single-mode period, so we can make the most accurate compensation with Busway, because we have real data [on intercity passenger transport]. Right now, we only have statistical data from the previous one. And the network is completely new," he noted.

" For us, it was even better to start this way . Because then, in a few months, we can already have real data to be able to compensate Busway," he added.

The president of CIM/RC also said that the current contract, under a monomodal regime, has been approved by the Court of Auditors, but when the system becomes intermodal, it will have to request a new approval, as it will be a contractual change.

According to data provided to Lusa by Emílio Torrão, the new intermunicipal transport system in the Coimbra Region involves 211 lines, 1,940 service schedules and 5,211 stops, served by 240 buses – 186 new (77.5%) and 54 used.

All vehicles will have free on-board Wi-Fi and air conditioning and an average age of 55 months (about four and a half years) throughout the concession, with an expected mileage of almost seven million kilometers.

Among the lines available in the 19 municipalities, there are some fast service lines, namely connections between Coimbra, Montemor-o-Velho and Figueira da Foz and even Mira, via Cantanhede, or even a connection to Penela.