José Luís Carneiro commenced the second official day of the local elections campaign at 5:00 AM, with a train journey on the Sintra Line to Rossio, joined by the head candidates of the Socialist Party for the municipal chambers of Sintra, Oeiras, Amadora, and Lisbon.
“There has never been such significant investment as there has been under the Socialist Party governments, particularly in railway transport. It is very important for the Government to explain what Infrastructure Minister, Pinto Luz, means by the intention to concession CP services,” he remarked to journalists aboard the train.
The Secretary-General of the Socialist Party acknowledged this as a “concerning issue” that will be monitored by the PS in the Assembly of the Republic.
“This line is one of the most important in the metropolitan area, which has been reinforced and upgraded, and there are concrete proposals to mobilize response to citizens. Among these concrete responses, one of the proposals from our candidate in Sintra is to ensure the ‘metropolization’ of the Sintra line,” he noted, alongside the lead candidate of the PS/PAN coalition.
The idea behind Ana Mendes Godinho’s proposal is to enable, similar to Paris, “trains running every 15 minutes,” according to the socialist leader.
“This involves a responsibility and commitment from the State to transform this line, serving the entire Lisbon Metropolitan Area, into a non-conventional railway line, but one that operates with the logic of a metropolitan service and offers a more regular and qualified response,” he explained.
Infrastructure and Housing Minister Miguel Pinto Luz confirmed on Tuesday that CP – Comboios de Portugal will not be privatized, but the Government plans to introduce sub-concessions for the service.
“There will be no privatization of CP. Will there be sub-concessions to make the system work better? Yes,” Miguel Pinto Luz stated at the Infrastructure, Mobility, and Housing Committee, in response to questions from PS deputy and former Secretary of State for Infrastructure, Frederico Francisco.
Sub-concessions relate to the provision in the legislation allowing CP to temporarily cede the operation of part of its passenger railway services to a private company through a tender, without CP losing its position as the network’s concessionaire.
