The municipality has clarified that there is no outstanding debt related to the public service obligation compensations for 2025 regarding the urban concession. The local authorities stated in a written response that various opinions, including from the Mobility and Transport Authority (AMT), confirm that no such compensation is warranted.
The city council explained that the AMT acknowledged a potential financial rebalancing of the concession contract, and on February 17, 2025, the operator submitted a request in this regard. This request is currently under review by internal technical services and external consultants and must be validated by the AMT.
The Avic Group company is the current concessionaire for the public passenger transport service in Viana do Castelo, with the contract expiring on September 22.
The operator accused the council today of owing “over 100,000 euros in pass discounts and fare adjustments since January,” in addition to “approximately 1.7 million euros claimed in arbitration court.”
The council refutes these claims and additionally states that it is “false that [the mayor] ever claimed there was a prepayment of funds to the operators.”
The municipality maintained that, between 2021 and 2023, an effort of 500,000 euros from the city’s own resources was made available to the operators, on top of the PART and Protransp State support programs for public transport.
At the end of 2023, there were delays in State transfers to the municipality, but all amounts were settled even before the deadline agreed by the parties, according to the council.
Transcunha claims that the “council has consistently accumulated debt with the company, reaching unprecedented and unsustainable levels in recent years.”
“Currently, apart from the amount claimed in the Arbitration Court, roughly 1.7 million euros, the council owes over 100,000 euros to Transcunha for discounts on passes and fare adjustments since January 2025,” it criticized.
Regarding the company’s workers who recently considered striking to demand integration into the service the council will assume in September, the president of the Road and Urban Transport Workers Union of the North (STRUN) stated today that they have decided not to proceed with the strike for now, pending the process outcome.
Transcunha has filed a labor court action for its drivers to be integrated into the service that the council will take over in September.
On June 9, Transcunha announced it would appeal the verdict that dismissed the case, noting that the court agreed with them “but deferred the decision.”
On June 6, the mayor announced that the Labor Court had dismissed Transcunha’s action to secure employment for its drivers in light of the council’s decision to take over public transport.
Today, Transcunha emphasized that “the ruling did not support the council – it merely identified a lack of documentary proof during the decision-making process.”
In May, regarding the same labor court case, the mayor of Viana do Castelo stated that the municipality, by law, cannot integrate the 23 drivers from the operator into its workforce, as all external expert opinions “indicate that the council is not obligated to retain the drivers.”
On Friday, the mayor advised Transcunha drivers to apply for a new recruitment process that the council must initiate to hire additional staff, “just as they could have done in the previous two [procedures] conducted by the municipality.”
