Public Transport Passes in Portugal in 2026 — A Practical Guide to the Lisbon Navegante, the Porto Andante, the Passe Ferroviário Verde, the Free Sub-23 and Sub-18 Tariffs, the +65 Tier and the Regional Networks of Coimbra, Braga, Aveiro and Faro

Portugal's public-transport-pass architecture is, for the foreign resident moving in 2026, one of the most generous in Western Europe — with a €40 monthly cap on metropolitan travel across the entire Área Metropolitana de Lisboa or Área Metropolitana do Porto, a €20 monthly cap on inter-regional rail across the country, and a free regime for under-23s and under-18s that swept across the country in successive waves from 2022 onward. The pass stack splits into four layers: the metropolitan single-pass instruments (Navegante for Lisbon, Andante for Porto), the inter-regional rail instrument (Passe Ferroviário Verde), the regional and municipal instruments outside the two metros, and the special-tier overlays (Sub-23, Sub-18, Sub-13, +65, Família, Social+, Antigo Combatente).

This guide walks each layer for 2026, with the prices, the eligibility, the operator coverage and the loading mechanics — anchored in the official tariff cards from CIM-AML / Navegante.pt for Lisbon, TIP and Andante.pt for Porto, CP for the Passe Ferroviário Verde, and the regional networks for the secondary cities.

The Lisbon Navegante — €40 Metropolitano, €30 Municipal, Frozen for the Seventh Consecutive Year

The Navegante is the single-pass instrument for the Área Metropolitana de Lisboa: 18 municipalities, 2.9 million inhabitants, the densest commuter-rail and metro stack in the country. The 2026 menu holds at the prices set in 2019, the seventh consecutive year of frozen pass tariffs:

• Navegante Metropolitano — €40 monthly. Valid across all 18 AML municipalities and on every operator: Carris, Carris Metropolitana, Metro de Lisboa, CP urbanos (Linha Cascais, Linha Sintra, Linha Azambuja, Linha Sado), Fertagus (Setúbal/Roma-Areeiro), MTS (Metro Sul do Tejo, Almada/Seixal), TST, Soflusa (Cacilhas, Trafaria, Porto Brandão), Transtejo (Cacilhas-Cais do Sodré, Montijo-Cais do Sodré, Seixal-Cais do Sodré, the new Seixal-Barreiro electric-ferry from June 2026).
• Navegante Municipal — €30 monthly. Valid within a single AML municipality. The default option for Lisbon-only or Almada-only or Cascais-only commuters.
• Navegante Família — Combined household cap at the equivalent of two Metropolitano passes (€80) or two Municipal passes (€60). Each member loads their own card; the household pays the cap.
• Navegante +65 — €20 monthly. For residents aged 65 or older, on civil-ID and tax-ID presentation. Profile re-certified every five years.
• Navegante Social — €30 monthly Metropolitano / €22.50 Municipal. For households with monthly equivalent income at or below 1.2× the IAS (€480.43 for 2026). Application via Junta de Freguesia or directly at customer-service counters.

Loading mechanics: a Navegante card is issued at customer-service counters at any major rail or metro station (Cais do Sodré, Oriente, Sete Rios, Entrecampos, Sintra, Cascais), at Loja Navegante outlets, or via the navegante.pt portal. Loading is monthly via the Loja Carris Metropolitana app, the navegante.pt portal, the Multibanco machine network, or any operator counter. The card costs €7 once and is valid for 5 years before re-issuance.

The Porto Andante — €40 Metropolitano, €30 Three-Zone or Municipal, Sub-13 Free Across the Network

The Andante is the single-pass instrument for the Área Metropolitana do Porto: 17 municipalities, 1.7 million inhabitants, and an integrated rail-metro-bus network operated through the Transportes Intermodais do Porto (TIP) consortium. The 2026 menu — confirmed by the TIP communication of late 2025 — holds at the 2025 levels for the monthly subscriptions, with occasional ticket increases from Z3 onward:

• Andante Metropolitano — €40 monthly. Valid across all 17 AMP municipalities and on every operator: STCP buses, Metro do Porto (yellow, blue, red, green, violet, orange and purple lines plus the new pink line opening 2026), CP urbanos (Linha do Norte / Linha do Douro / Linha do Minho urban segments), and the suburban-bus operators within the AMP (Vimeca, Maria Santos, Resende, Espírito Santo, others).
• Andante Municipal or 3Z — €30 monthly. Valid within a single municipality or within three contiguous zones. The default for Porto-only, Vila Nova de Gaia-only, or Matosinhos-only commuters.
• Andante Família — €60 (two 3Z subscriptions) or €80 (two Metropolitano subscriptions) household cap. Minimum three household members on a shared tax residency in the 17 AMP municipalities.
• Andante 4_18 — Free monthly subscription for 4-to-18-year-olds outside the municipal school-transport bus network. Application requires an official school declaration, updated within three months.
• Andante Sub-13 — Completely free monthly subscription for 4-to-12-year-olds, Metropolitano coverage.
• Andante Porto Student Pass — Free municipal-coverage subscription for 13-to-18-year-old Porto-resident students.
• Andante Sub-23 — Free monthly subscription for higher-education students up to 23 (24 for Medicine and Architecture). Requires an official university declaration. Online enrolment via the institutional portals (P.Porto, U.Porto, Lusófona, others).
• Andante 3ª Idade — €30 monthly Metropolitano. For 65+ residents on civil-ID and tax-ID presentation.
• Andante Social+ — €20 monthly. For households at or below 1.2× IAS (€480.43 monthly equivalent income). Documentation: civil ID, IRS declaration, liquidity statement.

Occasional tickets: the Z2 ticket — 60% of the occasional-ticket sales — holds at €1.40 in 2026. From Z3 upward, occasional tickets climb 5 cêntimos: Z3 €1.85, Z4 €2.30, Z5 €2.80, Z6 €3.25, Z7 €3.75, Z8 €4.20, Z9 €4.65.

The Passe Ferroviário Verde — €20 Monthly for All CP Regional, Inter-Regional and Inter-City Rail

The Passe Ferroviário Verde — launched in August 2022 as the post-pandemic public-transport stimulus — is the single-pass instrument for inter-regional rail across mainland Portugal. The 2026 monthly tariff holds at €20, the same level as 2025 and the seventh year of frozen pricing on the instrument's re-priced 2024 tariff card. The pass covers:

• All CP Regional services (the slow-train network across the country)
• All CP Inter-Regional services (the medium-speed network)
• The CP urban networks of Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra
• The Inter-City (IC) services on the Linha do Norte, Linha do Sul, Linha do Douro and Linha do Oeste

The Alfa Pendular high-speed services — the Lisbon-Porto-Braga premium line — are excluded from the Verde pass. The pass is loaded onto a personal CP smartcard and is valid for the full calendar month from first validation. Sub-23 and Sub-18 students get the Passe Ferroviário Verde free of charge. The instrument is the most cost-efficient way to combine an Algarve / Alentejo / Centro / Norte / Beira Interior travel pattern with a Lisbon-AML or Porto-AMP base.

The Sub-23 + Sub-18 Free Regime — The 2022 Reform That Swept the Country

The free youth tariff regime is the single most consequential public-transport policy reform of the past five years. The architecture, in its 2026 form:

• Sub-23 — Free Navegante, Andante or regional municipal pass for higher-education students up to 23 (24 for Medicine and Architecture). Eligibility: enrolled in a Portuguese higher-education institution, or at IEFP-recognised vocational training. The card is issued through the university's secretariat or through the IMT online portal. The pass covers the full Navegante Metropolitano (Lisbon) or the full Andante Metropolitano (Porto) at zero cost.
• Sub-18+TP — Free monthly pass for 4-to-18-year-olds across the country. Eligibility: under 18 on the first day of the school year, enrolled in primary or secondary education. Coverage matches the Sub-23 pattern at zero cost.
• Sub-13 — Free Andante Metropolitano (Porto only) for 4-to-12-year-olds.

The free-regime is funded through the State Budget's Programa de Apoio à Redução Tarifária (PART) line and is administered through the Instituto da Mobilidade e dos Transportes (IMT). The regime has lifted youth-tariff ridership across both metropolitan areas by double-digit percentages since launch.

The Regional Networks — Coimbra SMTUC, Braga TUB, Aveiro MOVE Aveiro, Faro EVA / Próximo

Outside Lisbon and Porto, the public-transport stack is municipal-led, with each capital running its own network and tariff card:

• Coimbra (SMTUC). Monthly pass €25 (single-zone municipal), €15 sub-25 student. SMTUC operates the trolleybus network (the only one in Portugal) plus the urban bus network across the Comboios Urbanos de Coimbra footprint, integrated with CP urbanos.
• Braga (TUB). Monthly Passe Único €25 for the urban network. Sub-23 and Sub-18 free under the same national regime. Family discounts available through the Câmara Municipal de Braga social-tariff programme.
• Aveiro (MOVE Aveiro). Monthly pass €30 — the youngest of the metropolitan-tariff cards, integrating MOVE Aveiro buses with CP urbanos and Aveiro suburban network. Sub-23 free.
• Faro (EVA / Próximo Algarve). Monthly Passe Próximo €40 (Algarve-wide), €25 (Faro-Loulé corridor). Sub-23 and Sub-18 free. The Próximo card integrates the EVA buses with the Vamus regional network across the Algarve.
• Funchal (Horários do Funchal). Monthly pass €36, free for under-18s and over-65s, social tariff for the lower-income tier.
• Ponta Delgada (Carris Açoriana). Monthly municipal pass €25, with the Passe Sub-23 free and the senior tariff at €15.

The Operator Map — Who Carries What

The Portuguese public-transport operator universe is more fragmented than the pass-card universe suggests. Lisbon's Navegante combines:

• Carris — the city-of-Lisbon municipal bus, tram and elevator operator (yellow trams, the Glória, Bica and Lavra elevadores, all the urban bus lines)
• Carris Metropolitana — the AML-wide bus operator (the green, blue, red, yellow zones covering the 17 non-Lisbon AML municipalities)
• Metro de Lisboa — the four-line metro network (yellow, blue, green, red), expanding with the Linha Circular currently under construction
• CP urbanos Lisboa — the four CP urban lines (Cascais, Sintra, Azambuja, Sado)
• Fertagus — the private operator on the Setúbal / Pragal / Roma-Areeiro line crossing the Tagus
• MTS Metro Sul do Tejo — the south-bank light-rail (Almada-Cacilhas-Pragal-Universidade)
• Soflusa — the Tagus ferry operator (Cacilhas, Trafaria, Porto Brandão, Barreiro from June 2026)
• Transtejo — the longer-distance Tagus ferry operator (Montijo, Seixal)

Porto's Andante combines: STCP, Metro do Porto, CP urbanos Porto, and a constellation of suburban-bus operators across the AMP (Vimeca, Maria Santos, Espírito Santo, Resende, others).

The Read for Foreign Residents

For foreign residents moving to Lisbon or Porto in 2026, the practical decision tree is:

1. Single-municipality commuter (e.g. living and working in Lisbon). Navegante Municipal at €30/month or Andante Municipal at €30/month. Pays back at the first 26 single-fares.
2. Cross-municipality commuter (e.g. living in Cascais, working in Lisbon, or living in Vila Nova de Gaia, working in Porto). Navegante Metropolitano at €40 or Andante Metropolitano at €40. Pays back at the first 13 cross-municipality round-trips.
3. Family with school-age children. Sub-13 / Sub-18 / Sub-23 free regime — the children travel free, the parents on Navegante Família or Andante Família at the household-cap level.
4. Inter-regional travel + metropolitan base. Navegante Metropolitano + Passe Ferroviário Verde — €60/month total, covers the metropolitan area plus all CP regional and inter-regional rail nationwide. Pays back at one round-trip Lisbon-Porto on Inter-Regional or two round-trips Lisbon-Algarve on Inter-City.
5. Income-restricted household. Navegante Social or Andante Social+ at €30 or €20 monthly. Eligibility checked at 1.2× IAS (€480.43 monthly equivalent income for 2026).

The seven-year frozen-tariff record on the Lisbon Navegante and the Porto Andante is the single most consequential cost-of-living anchor for foreign residents in either metropolitan area. The free Sub-23 / Sub-18 regime — funded through the State Budget's PART line — has been the most popular public-transport reform of the past decade and shows no political signal of being unwound. The Passe Ferroviário Verde at €20 monthly is the single most cost-efficient long-distance rail instrument in Western Europe and is the cleanest way to combine a Lisbon or Porto metropolitan base with a rest-of-country travel pattern.