The Lisboa Brief, Week of 26 September 2026: The 20 Euro Rail Pass Becomes Law for Lisbon's Trains, a Navegante Ticket for Visitors, and 90 Homes for Posted Staff

The 20 euro rail pass is now law on Lisbon's commuter trains, even if you cannot buy it for them yet. Elsewhere: a Navegante ticket for visitors, a dearer Cacilhas ferry for tourists, about 90 homes for posted nurses, teachers and police, and a short-term fix for Almada's water.

The Rail Pass Is Law; Now CP Has to Switch It On

Decree-Law 195-A/2026 was published on Friday and takes effect today, extending the 20 euro monthly Passe Ferroviário Verde to CP's urban trains and to Fertagus across the bridge. It does not set a start date. That is for CP, and until it announces one, nothing changes at the ticket office.

The extension had already missed its Mobility Week target. When it does arrive, it matters most to people who travel only by train on the Sintra, Cascais, Azambuja or Sado lines, and to anyone coming in from the Oeste or the Ribatejo who now needs two tickets. The pass covers trains only: no metro, bus or ferry.

Visitors Get Their Own Ticket, and a Dearer Ferry

The Lisbon Metropolitan Council voted unanimously on Thursday for Navegante tickets aimed at visitors: 15 euros for one day, 27 for three and 37.50 for five, plus an events ticket priced by the length of the event. There is no sale date and no list yet of which lines they cover.

On the river, Transtejo's chair told the Assembleia Municipal that more than 90 percent of single tickets on the Cais do Sodré to Cacilhas crossing are sold to tourists, and he will seek an above-inflation rise on the 2 euro fare. Monthly passes stay as they are. At Terreiro do Paço, cash still works at the machines; only the staffed counter is card only.

At the Câmara

The council expects to convert the former Council of Ministers building into about 90 homes, mostly one-bedroom flats, for health workers, police officers and teachers posted to the capital. It will take a surface right from the state property company Estamo and spend more than 20 million euros; there is no date yet. The same session heard that Lisbon will not follow Porto and Cascais into fully free public transport.

South of the River

After a summer of overnight cut-offs on the Caparica coast, Almada's short-term answer is a single borehole in Seixal, to be licensed in early October. A pipe from Lisbon and a link to the Castelo do Bode dam are still studies. From today Almada homes under the airport approach can also claim up to 5,000 euros for soundproof windows, the full cost, once the council opens a call; the loudest streets and households on the social tariff go first.

And the Almada administrative court gave the Education Ministry three working days to place a boy with special needs in a school near home, with every support in his assessment. It took one.

Health and the Metro

The Health Minister told parliament that orthopaedics is the next emergency speciality to be concentrated, with Lisboa e Vale do Tejo the priority. No date has been given. The Ombudsman's report on transport accessibility found five of the fourteen platform lifts at Oriente out of service on the day of its visit, and the surface lift at Rato broken on its visits in both 2024 and 2026.

Campus News

NOVA's trustees unanimously refused to confirm Paulo Pereira as rector, after a Lisbon court annulled his May election; he says he will seek to suspend the decision, and teaching carries on. In Cascais, university grants rise to 1,250 or 1,750 euros a year, open to holders of a permanent residence permit, with applications on MyCascais until 18:00 on 16 October.

One Number

883. That is how many beds were in the five student residences, four of them in the Lisbon area, that changed hands for a reported 80 million euros this week. Not one student bed was added: the money bought buildings that already existed.

Jorge Palma, 1950 to 2026

The songwriter died in Lisbon on Monday night, aged 76. Born in the city, he left the Conservatório at fourteen for rock; in 1991 he made Só, voice and piano alone, the album a generation still knows by heart.

The Week's Weather

Lisbon reaches 34 degrees today, the last hot day. Light rain arrives on Monday, and a cold front crosses late on Tuesday into Wednesday, when the IPMA gives Lisbon an 84 percent chance of rain.

On in Lisbon

The Festival Cuca Monga ends tonight in the gardens of the Museu de Lisboa at the Palácio Pimenta, from 18:00, with Sérgio Godinho and Zarco and Manel Cruz on the bill; a day ticket is 30 euros. The Castelo de São Jorge runs its Days of the Middle Ages today and tomorrow, with free walks outside the walls for those who register first, and the Feira Medieval de Marvila fills the Parque Urbano do Vale Fundão until Sunday.

Record collectors should head to the gardens of the Palácio Baldaya in Benfica, where the tenth Feira de Vinil runs from 10:00 to 20:00 today and tomorrow. On Monday the São Luiz marks six years since the death of Jorge Salavisa, its first director, with a plaque, a word from the mayor and a screening of Marco Martins's film about him, from 15:00.

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

Feature image: a CP suburban train on the Sintra line at Benfica, by Rúdisicyon (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons.