| Porto Metro | |
|---|---|
| Info | |
| Locale | Porto |
| Transit type | Light rail |
| Number of lines | 6 |
| Number of stations | 80 |
| Operation | |
| Began operation | 2002 |
| Operator(s) | ViaPORTO |
| Number of vehicles | 102 |
| Technical | |
The Porto Metro (Portuguese: Metro do Porto), part of the public transport (mass transit) system of Porto, Portugal, is a light-rail network that runs underground in central Porto and above ground into the city's suburbs. The Porto Metro was founded in 2002, and it was for years one of the major construction sites in the European Union.
The network has 6 lines and reaches seven municipalities within the metropolitan Porto area: Porto, Gondomar, Maia, Matosinhos, Póvoa de Varzim, Vila do Conde and Vila Nova de Gaia. It currently has a total of 80 operational stations across 67 km (41.5 mi) of double commercial line. Most of the system is at ground level or elevated, but 8 km (5 mi) of the network is underground. The system is run by ViaPORTO.
Line A (blue line) between Senhor de Matosinhos and Trindade in central Porto was the first Porto Metro line to open, in 2002. The line was extended in 2004 to Estádio do Dragão, in time for the Euro 2004 Football championship.
On April 14, 2005, Line B (red line) opened. The Casa da Música concert hall (which has a station on the combined ABCEF line) opened on the same day.
Line C (green line) opened on July 30, 2005, reaching the centre of Maia. An extension to ISMAI opened in March 2006.
Line D (yellow line) proved the most problematic to excavate and opened in 2005. The line runs from João de Deus and Vila Nova de Gaia in the south before crossing the River Douro and passing through central Porto en route to Hospital São João in the north. The Hospital São João and IPO stations were not brought into service until April 2006 due to safety concerns, and some services on this line still terminate at Pólo Universitário.
Line E (violet line) opened on May 27, 2006, connecting the Airport Francisco Sá Carneiro and Campanhã. Several weeks later, the line was extended until Estádio do Dragão. An end-to-end journey takes 33 minutes, with trains departing every 25 minutes.
Line F (orange line) opened on January 2, 2011, connecting Porto city centre to the Gondomar region in the east, this line runs between Senhora da Hora and Fânzeres.
Lines A, B, C, E & F follow the same course within the City of Porto (between Estádio do Dragão and Senhora da Hora). The transfer point between Line ABCEF and Line D is at Trindade in central Porto.
As of 2007, the total cost of Porto Metro mass transit public transport system stands on 3,500 million euros - over 1% of Portugal's GDP. The first phase of the project alone, which was led by the mayors of several Grande Porto (Greater Porto) municipalities including Valentim Loureiro as a chairman of the state-owned company, was 140% more expensive than initially planned which means a slippage of over 1,500 million euros. The Porto Metro state-owned company has reported losses every year, reaching a record loss of 122 million euros in 2006.[1][2]
The Metro uses modern Eurotram low-floor dual-carriage trams. New Flexity Swift LRVs are due to be used in the red line in 2008; these new trains will reach 100 km/h (62.5 mph), have more seats, and can in common with most modern light rail systems recover 30% of the total of consumed energy during braking.
The majority of services run with two LRVs coupled together. The Eurotram consists of four main compartments, two in each carriage linked by short corridors, and also features an articulation between the two carriages. They have a capacity of 80 seated and 134 standing passengers.
The system uses the "Andante" ticketing system. Machines in stations issue and can recharge Andante Azul - blue "Occasional" tickets, while Andante Gold is a credit-card style "Gold" tickets (which bear a scanned photograph of the holder) that can be purchased in Lojas Andante (Andante Shops). Tickets can also be topped up at Multibanco ATM terminals.
Tickets must be validated before travel by scanning them in front of the yellow machines located in stations. A validated occasional ticket allows for unlimited travel within a specified time period, currently 1 hour for the minimum 2-zone ticket, and longer as the number of valid zones increases. The gold passes allow unlimited travel within a pre-defined area, and are available in "anytime" or cheaper "10/16" (off-peak) versions. There is also a daily ticket, known as Andante 24 that allows the user to make unlimited trips within a given day in the zones chosen. For example, a Z3 (3-zone) ticket is valid for 3 zones in any direction of travel from the first validated zone. So, to cover all of the Metro, except the northern-most part of Line B (zones N2 and N3), a Z4 ticket is needed, provided it is validated in zone C1.
There are no entry barriers on the system and groups of revenue protection staff make random spot checks on passengers with hand-held scanners. The current penalty for travelling without a validated ticket is €77.
The metro uses the same zoning system as the majority of public transport providers in the Porto metropolitan area, which is divided into Central (C), North (N) and South (S) zones, and further divided into numbered sub-zones. The C1 zone in central Porto is effectively the area contained within the VCI (Via Cintura Interna) inner ring-road, while zones C2 and C6 are the areas between the VCI and the Estrada da Circunvalação outer ring-road.
The Andante system is being rolled out across the entire Porto public transit network. STCP bus routes and some other bus routes currently accept Andante and the intention is for the entire bus, metro and suburban train network to become integrated. The same ticket can be used on downtown Porto trams and the cable car (Funicular dos Guindais).
The Metro do Porto company also operates the Funicular of Guindais, a cable-car system that was originally built in 1891 and recently remodelled. It connects the riverside area of Ribeira to higher ground at Batalha, near Sao Bento station.
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