The Lisboa Brief, Week of 10 October 2026: Santa Apolónia Loses Its Metro, Ten Council Plots Go to Auction, and Cascais Floats a Toll on the Marginal

Santa Apolónia is about to lose its metro for well over a year, and the council has decided against a shuttle bus. Also this week: ten council plots go up for auction with no affordable housing attached, Cascais floats a toll on the Marginal, and two road races and a protest fill this weekend.

Santa Apolónia Loses Its Metro

The council executive on Wednesday approved the transport plan for closing the Blue Line between Terreiro do Paço and Santa Apolónia. Público reports that works start in early November and the interruption runs into 2028. The Blue Line will end at Terreiro do Paço; the CP railway station stays open.

There will be no dedicated shuttle. Instead Carris adds buses from the Santa Apolónia area to Cais do Sodré and Restauradores, and CP points rail passengers to Oriente and the Linha de Cintura to reach the Metro. No route numbers or frequencies had been published by Wednesday evening. The closure lets engineers reinforce the metro tunnel from inside, after the 5 kilometre drainage tunnel from Monsanto met weaker ground than expected near the river. A closure first presented as ten months now stands at 415 days, and the council will pay the Metro 2.8 million euros in compensation.

Ten Council Plots Go to Auction

Lisbon will auction ten municipal plots at 10:00 on 10 December, with base prices adding up to just under 59.3 million euros. They sit in seven parishes, from Marvila and Beato to Belém, Campolide and São Vicente, and the most valuable, on Rua Emília Eduarda in Penha de França, starts at 13.7 million euros. None of the published documents requires affordable or capped-rent homes on any plot. One Penha de França parcel is occupied by three households, and clearing it falls to the buyer.

A Toll on the Marginal?

The mayor of Cascais, Nuno Piteira Lopes, has raised the idea of tolling the Marginal to pay for works on it, once the council takes over the road up to Carcavelos. Cascais residents would not pay; drivers from Oeiras and Lisbon would. It is not a decision: the transfer still has to be agreed with the State, and no price, date or collection method has been announced.

A Busy Weekend on the Roads

The EDP Lisbon Marathon left Carcavelos at 8:00 this morning and follows the coast into the Praça do Comércio, with a six-hour limit, so expect restrictions along the riverside until about 14:00. Tomorrow the half marathon starts on the Vasco da Gama Bridge at 9:20, and Lusoponte cuts the bridge to one lane each way from midnight to 14:00.

This afternoon the "Não dá mais para viver assim" platform marches against rents and the cost of living, meeting at 17:00 in the Largo do Intendente, just off the Avenida Almirante Reis.

Health

An unvaccinated adult with measles is in isolation at Santa Maria and improving. Renascença reports more than 400 contacts traced after visits to the emergency departments of Santa Maria and Hospital Lusíadas Lisboa on 3, 4 and 6 October. If you develop fever, a rash or conjunctivitis after possible contact, call SNS 24 on 808 24 24 24.

Five obstetricians from the Maternidade Alfredo da Costa move to Vila Franca de Xira on 1 November, to rebuild a service that is down to one doctor. In Cascais, two new SNS 24 counters in Parede and São Domingos de Rana now help people use the health service's digital services in person.

Policing

Every PSP criminal inquiry in Greater Lisbon now answers to a single division run from a fort in Restelo, whose commander says about 60 percent of the region's violent and serious crime happens in the municipality of Lisbon itself. In Belas, Sintra, police inspecting an unlicensed care home found older residents tied into armchairs with bed sheets; the case is with prosecutors.

Hotels, Museums and the Brazilian Vote

Greater Lisbon was the only region where accommodation revenue fell in August, down 1.6 percent, with room rates down 2.1 percent, even as nights rose.

The MAAT in Belém turned ten on Monday with more than three million visitors behind it, and its Joana Vasconcelos show on Valentino runs until 22 February. The National Museum of Ancient Art reopens on 21 November. Staff at EGEAC, the council's culture company, rally on 22 October, after a sector-wide culture strike on 17 October.

Lula took 53.5 percent of Lisbon's Brazilian vote, but only about 28,000 valid votes came from roughly 79,000 people registered. The runoff is on 25 October.

And plan for the heat: an October heatwave is likely next week, with highs above 30 °C possible in the Tagus Valley.

On in Lisbon

Feira Feia, a fair of independent record labels with concerts by their musicians, fills the Zabra on Avenida Infante Dom Henrique today from 15:00 to 23:00 and tomorrow from 15:00 to 19:00, with a late concert tonight at the Damas bar on Rua da Voz do Operário (solidarity contribution). The Festival Imersivo of electroacoustic music runs until tomorrow at Lisboa Incomum on Rua General Leman, played through its two dome-shaped sound systems.

The council's free Sons pela Cidade chamber series, played by musicians of the Metropolitana, reaches the Igreja de São Bartolomeu in Beato tonight at 21:00 with Zelenka, and continues in other parishes until 1 November, subject to seating. And the Teatro do Bairro is staging Beaumarchais's The Marriage of Figaro, directed by António Pires, until 8 November: Wednesday to Friday at 21:00, weekends at 17:00, 15 euros, ages 12 and over.

That is the capital's week. The Lisboa Brief returns next Saturday.

Feature image: a Blue Line train at Santa Apolónia metro station, by Mathieu Marquer (CC BY-SA 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons.