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Transport

Public transport, infrastructure, and mobility in Portugal.

A red and silver Metro de Lisboa train arriving at the platform at Alameda station, with passengers waiting along the tiled platform edge

Portugal's Trains Carried 3.7 Million More Passengers This Spring While the Lisbon Metro Shed Its Third Quarter in a Row

INE's second-quarter transport figures put rail up 6.2 percent and interurban journeys up 15.6 percent, while Metro de Lisboa fell 4.4 percent and Metro do Porto rose 4.8 percent. Domestic air traffic shrank 3.9 percent as international grew.

The Portugal Brief 08 Sep 2026

Passengers queueing between retractable barriers in a terminal at Lisbon's Humberto Delgado airport, with a uniformed security officer standing beside the line

The Six-Hour Valve at Europe's Biometric Border Expired on Sunday, and It Only Lasted That Long Because the Rollout Missed Its Own Biometric Threshold

Article 7(3) of Regulation 2025/1534 let a state drop fingerprints for six hours at one crossing point when queues grew. It lapsed on 6 September. Ryanair wants it back to April 2027, and Portugal signed a letter asking for the same thing in July.

The Portugal Brief 08 Sep 2026

Porto city hall seen across the square, the granite clock tower and carved facade of the historic building on the left and the modern municipal annexe with its rows of windows on the right.

The Mayor Who Delivered Porto 2001 and Helped Draw the Metro Map Died on Monday at 64, After Twice Asking the City to Take Him Back

Nuno Cardoso became mayor in 1999 by substitution, ran the European Capital of Culture year and the metro construction, and was dropped by his party before he could face a ballot. He came back as an independent twice, taking 1 percent in 2013 and 1.9 percent last October.

The Portugal Brief 07 Sep 2026

The shopfront of the Escola de Conducao Campanha driving school in Porto, its windows lettered with carta de conducao and homologacao services and hung with road sign decals.

Portugal Unpicks the Troika-Era Merger That Built the IMT, Blaming It for Bottlenecks, and Moves Rail Safety to the Transport Regulator on 1 October

Decree-Law 179/2026 revokes the 2012 statute outright and takes effect on 1 October. Its preamble says the bailout-era merger of four bodies produced inefficiencies and bottlenecks. Every senior management post is vacated on day one, and rail safety moves to the AMT within 90 days.

The Portugal Brief 07 Sep 2026

A Prio filling station beside a road in Portugal, its canopy and price totem lit under a dark sky, with a car at the pumps and a mini market alongside

Portuguese Diesel Sets an All-Time Record at the Pump This Week After a Fifteen-Cent Jump, With Petrol 95 Near 2.12 Euros a Litre

ANAREC projects diesel up about 15 cents and petrol about 10 from Monday, clearing the 2.131 euro record set in April. The government widened the ISP discount three cents on Friday and ruled out a VAT cut.

The Portugal Brief 07 Sep 2026

The departures concourse at Lisbon's Humberto Delgado airport, seen from below, with a bilingual partidas and departures sign and a terminal 2 direction board

Ten More Cents a Passenger at Lisbon, Thirty-Four at Porto and Faro: ANA's 2027 Charge Proposal Lands Below Inflation in One City and Above It in Two

ANA wants regulated charges up 0.67 percent at Lisbon and about 3.8 percent at Porto and Faro from January. Annex 12 of the concession explains the gap: the Lisbon cap carries four adjustment terms the other two do not.

The Portugal Brief 07 Sep 2026

A TAP Air Portugal A321neo on stand at Lisbon airport, with a Luxembourg Airlines jet and the control tower behind it under a cloudy sky.

The Cabinet Read Parpública's Report on TAP and Chose Neither Bidder: Air France-KLM and Lufthansa Get Three Weeks to Improve

The minister said the extra round would take "some weeks, not months". The resolution published in Friday's gazette says three weeks, allows two ministers to move that date, and quietly extends the deadline for the entire sale to 31 December 2026.

The Portugal Brief 06 Sep 2026

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