Porto's Buses Now Answer on WhatsApp, and the Number Works From a Line, a Stop or Your Location

From Tuesday 1 September, the question of when the next bus reaches your stop in Porto can be put to STCP on WhatsApp, and answered in a few seconds. The Sociedade de Transportes Coletivos do Porto (Porto Public Transport Company) has opened a two-way channel on the app, and the number it runs on is one many passengers already have written down somewhere.

How it works

The channel sits on +351 226 158 158. Start a conversation and the operator offers three ways to ask:

• By line. Give the number of the line you want.
• By stop. Give the name or the code of the paragem.
• By location. Share where you are and let the system find the stops around you.

The reply comes back as an estimate for the next vehicle, and the conversation then keeps updating as the prediction changes, which is the part that distinguishes it from reading a timetable. STCP also publishes a direct entry point at wab.stcp.pt/STCP, which opens WhatsApp with the number already filled in and the message "Olá, STCP!" ready to send.

That number is not new. 226 158 158 is STCP's Linha Azul, the customer information line it has run for years, charged at the national landline rate. The company has put the WhatsApp service on the same number rather than minting a second one, so anyone who already had Linha Azul in their contacts has the new channel without doing anything.

Why now

STCP describes the launch as part of the modernisation it has been running under chief executive Luís Osório, aimed at what the company calls a reinforcement of its digital innovation strategy and of proximity to passengers. In the statement sent to newsrooms, it presents the channel as a complement to the real-time information channels it already operates rather than a replacement for them, offering what it calls a simpler, faster and more practical way to check when a bus is coming, and therefore better management of time and journeys.

The company is not doing this from a position of weakness. STCP closed its 2025 operating year with 71.8 million passengers and 2.9 million euros of net profit, its second consecutive year in the black.

It also arrives in a month when the rest of Porto's transport picture is unsettled, as our weekly Porto Brief set out on Sunday.

The other September change

Passengers checking arrival times this week should know that the underlying timetable is moving twice inside eight days, which is exactly the situation a real-time channel is useful for.

From Monday 31 August, STCP switched to its "férias escolares/verão" timetable, the school-holiday and summer schedule, which already runs more frequently on a number of lines than the August service did. From Monday 7 September the network returns to the "normal" timetable, with most lines reinforced and the extra capacity concentrated around the opening and closing times of schools, in step with the new academic year.

The same switch ends the summer reinforcements on the beach lines:

• Line 200, Bolhão to Castelo do Queijo, returns to Castelo do Queijo as its terminus.
• Lines 205, Campanhã to Castelo do Queijo, and 906, Trindade to Madalena, stop running their extra Saturday and Sunday trips.

Anyone who has spent August travelling to the coast on those services will find the weekend offer thinner from next Monday, and the WhatsApp channel is the quickest way to check a specific departure rather than assume the August pattern still holds.

The company's driver and network capacity have been the subject of negotiation for some time, including the five-union wage deal struck in June, which is the sort of thing that determines whether a reinforced timetable actually runs.

One caveat

WhatsApp is a Meta service, and using it to ask about a bus means starting a conversation on a commercial messaging platform rather than on STCP's own app or website. Sharing your location for the third search option means sharing it in that conversation. For passengers who would rather not, STCP's existing real-time channels are unaffected and still available, and the Linha Azul remains a phone call.