Cascais Floats a Toll on the Marginal, With Its Own Residents Exempt, to Pay for Works on the Coast Road

The mayor of Cascais, Nuno Piteira Lopes, has raised the possibility of charging tolls on the Marginal, the coastal road between Lisbon and Cascais, to pay for works on it once the council takes over its management, while promising that Cascais residents would not pay.

He made the comments to TVI and CNN Portugal on Wednesday, a day after the municipal executive approved the council's intention to take over the management of the road, officially the Estrada Nacional 6, up to the edge of the municipality at Carcavelos.

What the council wants to build

Taking over the road "opens the possibility of being able to apply a toll", Piteira Lopes said. "Cascais residents would obviously not pay that toll." The council lists several works it wants to carry out:

• extending the central reservation to Carcavelos;
• a roundabout at the Parede exit;
• speed cameras;
• traffic monitoring and video surveillance cameras.

According to TVI, neither the State nor Infraestruturas de Portugal, the public roads company, is willing to fund the investment, which is why the council is looking at a toll.

The mayor, a Social Democrat who succeeded Carlos Carreiras about a year ago, also said the area needs to reduce its dependence on the car. He pointed to investment in the Cascais railway line, with new trains due, and to the government's plan to tender the line's operation to a private company. "I believe it will be possible to move more and more users from individual transport to the train," he said.

Why it is contested

The idea is not a decision, and no toll level, start date or collection method has been announced. It is already controversial: Jornal de Negócios noted the risk that a toll would push traffic onto alternative roads through Cascais and Oeiras, and add a new cost for drivers. Exempting only Cascais residents would leave people who live in Oeiras or Lisbon and drive the Marginal to work, school or the beach paying, while their Cascais neighbours did not.

The Marginal is one of the busiest routes into Lisbon from the west, running along the coast through Oeiras, Carcavelos, Parede, Estoril and Cascais, parallel to the A5 motorway, which is already tolled. The council's planned takeover covers only the stretch inside the municipality of Cascais.

What happens next

The transfer of the road to the council still has to be agreed with the State. Any toll would then need a legal basis and a collection system, and the council has not said how residents would be identified for the exemption. Drivers who already use the A5 can check how tolls are charged electronically in our guide to paying tolls and using Via Verde.

The rail alternative the mayor mentioned is also in flux: the Finance Ministry has begun preparing a private operator for the Cascais line, which would be the first of CP's suburban services to change hands.