At the station located at the Mondego Mobility System’s (SMM) Material and Workshop Park, a large panel stands out, featuring two diagrams (one for the urban section and another for the suburban section), displaying different stops and channel intersections that change from red to green as buses pass, with colors indicating whether they are on time or delayed—all represented in real time.
This room manages the preliminary operation in the urban section between Vale das Flores and Portagem, which began in September.
Simultaneously, members of Metro Mondego and Efacec, the company responsible for the technical systems and operational support of the SMM, are conducting tests and trials in the suburban section between Alto de São João and Serpins (Lousã), which is expected to start operations by the end of the year, and whose diagram differs from the urban channel.
“This has a very railway-like graphical aspect,” commented Pedro Sendas, the technical director of Metro Mondego.
In addition to the large panel showing video surveillance images of SMM stations and the electric buses traveling in dedicated lanes, there are four tables with various monitors where Metro Mondego staff monitor all operations.
On the central command post panel, the difference between the urban system, with two tracks, and the suburban system, with a single track featuring multiple crossing points and infrastructures (bridges and tunnels), is notable, with barriers and level crossings represented distinctly on the diagram.
“Safety has always been very important, and we relied heavily on the railway system to develop a solution,” said Pedro Sendas.
According to José Mário Fonseca of Efacec, there was a significant focus on safety in the suburban section, using a system that detects if a section of the track is occupied or not, in a signaling system “similar to what would be installed in a light metro.”
If there is an indication that a certain section is occupied by a vehicle other than a bus, the system “requires the bus to pass at a reduced speed to ensure” that the section is clear, noted Fonseca, mentioning that in the suburban case, “it is a railway system where the only difference is detecting a bus instead of a train.”
“Otherwise, the entire logic of operation is the same as the railway system,” said José Mário Fonseca.
Once the entire system is operational, the command post is expected to provide 24-hour service, with one station monitoring the suburban area, another for the urban area, and a supervision station, stated Nuno Fonseca, the operations director at Metro Mondego.
For the operations director, there are new challenges every day—especially with the suburban operation—and “everything is a bit more complex than it seems.”
“There are many auxiliary systems that differentiate this from a normal road operation mode,” added Pedro Sendas.
Pedro Carvalho, Efacec’s head of training and system implementation, points to the various possibilities within the command post: the operator can cut the acceleration of a vehicle with a mouse click in response to an extraordinary event, monitor all alarms generated by all channel equipment, or identify a fault in a device.
The operator can also track vehicles in real time on a geographical map or analyze travel diagrams (with loaded schedules), displaying theoretical and actual times.
“It’s impeccable,” said Pedro Carvalho when looking at one of these diagrams where real times match the scheduled ones.
The operator, if needed, can add, remove, or alter trips from their station.
“You can manage on the spot, and changes are instantaneous,” stated Pedro Carvalho.
On the various monitors showing different graphs and diagrams, there is also the integration work of all Efacec’s technical systems and those from other contractors.
“We can manage everything and integrate all systems, including third-party technology,” clarified Alexandra Quaresma, also from Efacec, who noted that the system “is much more than a bus.”
