The extension of the Porto Metro Yellow Line between Santo Ovídio and Vila d’Este, in Vila Nova de Gaia, was inaugurated this Friday at the new Manuel Leão station, and will feature free travel this Friday and over the weekend.
“We will invite the citizens of the Metropolitan Area of Porto [AMP] to visit this station [Manuel Leão]the Santos Silva Hospital station, the viaduct, and we will offer the population free access to the metro journey between the Santo Ovídio station and the Vila d’Este”, as well as the return, the president of Metro do Porto, Tiago Braga, told journalists.
Free travel begins this Friday with the start of commercial operations in the afternoon, and the service will be paid for from Monday, according to the carrier.
The person in charge was speaking after the inauguration ceremony of the extension of the Yellow Line and Vila d’Este, which took place this morning at the Manuel Leão underground station, in Vila Nova of Gaia (Porto district).
In his speech, the president of the carrier stressed that the extension that comprises the Manuel Leão, Hospital Santos Silva and Vila d’Este stations will bring, per year, “an additional 950 thousand kilometers produced commercially, with a potential demand generator that amounts to 4.5 million annual passengers, plus 18 thousand daily validations”.
In environmental terms, the investment of 206.4 million euros represents a “potential for emissions [de dióxido de carbono] 2300 tons/year avoided, due to the daily reduction of 3800 uses of individual transport”, he pointed out.
For the Government, the Minister of Environment and Energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho, said that the length of the line “is much greater than the kilometers” it has, representing “dignity, mobility, time savings on travel ions, which can be enjoyed by the family, with friends”, improving the “quality of life” for an area where the approximately 17 thousand inhabitants “depend on cars and buses, which often have problems”, he highlighted.
The minister also pointed out, taking into account that the project was decided by the previous PS Government, that she had “no difficulty in recognizing the merit” of the predecessors’ initiative, with the intention of the AD Government (PSD/CDS-PP/ PPM) “multiply examples like this throughout the country”.
The Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, Miguel Pinto Luz, also stated that the current Executive has “no qualms” about inaugurating a project initiated by another Government, without a “Manichaean perspective of life” in which it would be necessary to “redo everything that came from behind”.
“We put, above all, the interest of the Portuguese and the ability of our fellow citizens to implement their happiness projects”, stated the government official in charge of transport.
In this field, he stated that what the current Government changed was “looking at these problems in an integrated way”, considering that it was “healthy” to combine in the same ministry “the vision of mobility and the vision of housing §tion”.
The president of the Chamber of Gaia and AMP, Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues, spoke of a work that went from “myth” to reality, in a “moment of joy for everyone”.
“When the North region grows, the country grows. When the North region progresses, the country progresses. This is an investment that makes a lot of sense”, and which was decided based on criteria of “financial sustainability “.
With a length of more than three kilometers, the project began in 2021 and included the construction of a 420-meter viaduct between Santo Ovídio and Manuel Leão (underground station), a one-kilometer tunnel to Hospital Santos Silva station and a Material and Workshop Park (PMO).
In Santo Ovídio, the current Yellow Line station will also have a pedestrian connection to the future Rubi Line station (Santo Ovídio – Casa da Música) and the future railway station High Speed Station, also in Santo Ovídio, whose roundabout should be transformed into a square.
