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Lisbon

News, culture, and events from Portugal's capital city.

The Ponte 25 de Abril seen from the Almada side, its red steel towers and suspended roadway crossing the Tagus towards Lisbon under a cloudy sky

Repaving Starts on the Ponte 25 de Abril Tonight, With Two Lanes Shut in Each Direction on the First Nights

Lusoponte is resurfacing the road deck between 22:00 and 06:00 every night until Friday. The bridge stays open, but on the first nights that leaves a single running lane in each direction.

The Portugal Brief 21 Sep 2026

The white art deco facade of the Terreiro do Paço ferry terminal in Lisbon, with three tall arched windows, a clock above the central arch and Lisbon taxis parked along the kerb in front.

Cash Is No Longer Accepted at the Terreiro do Paço Ferry Counter, and the European Rule That Would Settle It Is Still Unfinished

Transtejo Soflusa went card only at its staffed Lisbon ticket office on 14 September. An association has asked for the legal basis. Euro cash is legal tender, but what that obliges was left to a 2010 recommendation, and Portugal attaches no penalty to a refusal.

The Portugal Brief 20 Sep 2026

A yellow Carris tram waiting at the stop in Lisbon's Praça do Comércio, with the arcaded yellow and stone facade of the square behind it and an articulated bus alongside

The Lisboa Brief, Week of 19 September 2026: Two Weeks to Object to the 16E Tram, the Bairro Alto Cameras Get Three More Years, and Four Anaesthetists Leave Dona Estefânia

Your weekly roundup from the capital: the 16E fast tram consultation closes on 30 September, the Bairro Alto's cameras are renewed in a city that wants 616 more, four anaesthetists resign from Dona Estefânia, Gira's new app drops the 300 euro day-pass hold, and the theatre reopens on the Rossio.

The Portugal Brief 19 Sep 2026

The stone gateposts and main entrance of the Hospital Dona Estefânia in Lisbon, with a nurses' union banner reading Fortalecer o SNS hung on the boundary wall

Four Anaesthetists Leave Lisbon's Children's Hospital in October, a Fortnight After Its Emergency Chiefs Quit Their Posts

The health unit says three of the four were already absent and the fourth worked part time, and that it has hired ten people since June. The doctors' body puts the national shortfall at 600 anaesthetists.

The Portugal Brief 19 Sep 2026

A Polícia Municipal de Lisboa traffic van in white and yellow livery crossing a Lisbon street, with tiled apartment buildings and tram wires behind it

Selling Fake Drugs in the Baixa Is About to Become a Crime in Its Own Right

The government will classify it as a public crime of fraud, which means prosecutors can act without a complaint from the tourist who was sold a bag of pressed bay leaf and has already flown home.

The Portugal Brief 19 Sep 2026

The covered boarding area of Lisbon's Sete Rios coach terminal, with numbered platform pillars marked Linha 4, 5 and 6, a parked coach and passengers waiting on benches

FlixBus Boards Its First Passengers at Sete Rios on 29 September, With 23 Services and Nothing at All Between Half Past Four and Half Past Eight

Six months and three weeks after a Lisbon court ordered immediate access, the operator gets 1.9 percent of the terminal's claimed capacity and no slot in the evening peak. It says the fight is not over.

The Portugal Brief 17 Sep 2026

A Transtejo catamaran under way on the Tagus towards Lisbon in late afternoon light, with the 25 de Abril bridge on the horizon behind it.

Transtejo's Ten Electric Ferries Ran Together for the First Time on Wednesday, Three Years After the First One Arrived

The state ferry operator marked the moment at Cais do Sodré with a claim it has waited three years to make. The figure that matters to commuters is a different one: cancellations down about 90 percent, and the permanent 30 percent cut at Cacilhas gone.

The Portugal Brief 16 Sep 2026

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