Railway Pass of 20 euros implies a maximum reservation of 24 hours at Intercidades and does not serve urban areas in Lisbon and Porto
The use of the Green Rail Pass, worth 20 euros per month, on Intercidades trains requires mandatory seat reservation up to 24 hours in advance, which must be done at CP ticket offices or vending machines in Lisbon.
According to a document from CP, to which Lusa had access, the Green Railway Pass will be valid on the Intercidades service, in second class, “with advance and mandatory seat reservation”, and “the advance notice for each Seat reservation is a maximum of 24 hours” and “will have to be made at the CP ticket offices and in the new Vending Machines installed at stations in the Lisbon Metropolitan area”.
According to the same document, “travel reservations for Intercidades will soon be available at the online ticket office and on the CP App”.
That pass is not valid on Alfa Pendular and Internacional Celta services, nor in first class on Intercidades and InterRegional services.
Still regarding the Intercidades service, it is possible to reserve a place, free of charge, for a maximum of two different trips per day.
Urban only from Coimbra
This new pass will allow you to ride on all Coimbra urban trains, but on Lisbon and Porto only outside their respective metropolitan areas. This is because the urban services of Lisbon and Porto are already included in the Navegante and Andante multimodal passes (40 euros in the metropolitan versions), respectively, which correspond to the metropolitan areas of the country’s two largest cities and combine the various modes of transport in these areas ( buses from Carris Metropolitana and Unir, Lisbon and Porto metro stations and boats, in the case of Lisbon).
According to the CP document to which Lusa had access, with the new 20-euro monthly pass it will be possible to “travel on any route on Coimbra’s Regional and Urban trains, and in the second class of Interregional and Intercity trains”.
“On Lisbon’s urban trains you can travel on the route outside the metropolitan area (Cargado – Azambuja route), while on Porto trains the criteria is the same, with routes outside the metropolitan area being “Vila das Aves – Guimarães, Paredes – Marco of Canaveses, Paramos – Aveiro and Lousado – Braga”, can be read in the document.
The pass costs 20 euros for 30 consecutive days of use, but can also be purchased for 60 and 90 days, for 40 and 60 euros, respectively, and is loaded onto the CP Card which, according to the carrier’s website, has a cost six euros (three euros for students).
Anyone who already has a CP Card can use it to top up their Green Rail Pass, as long as it is valid.
“The holder of an unloaded pass or a customer with a loaded pass who does not make a reservation for the Intercidades train is considered a customer without a transport ticket, subject to the imposition of a fine”, states the document.
The Green Railway pass cannot be exchanged or refunded and, “in the event of train suspension or requests for refunds and compensation for delay, for reasons attributable to CP, the conditions in force for CP passes and subscriptions must be consulted”.
The Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, announced in August, at the Festa do Pontal, in Quarteira, district of Faro, a rail pass worth 20 euros per month that will give access to all urban, regional, interregional and intercity trains.
The pass is included in a “mobility plan” that will be approved, with the aim of facilitating the use of sustainable means of transport, which do not cause environmental problems, said the prime minister.
On Friday, the Council of Ministers meets on the topic of mobility and energy transition, in Entroncamento, where members of the Government will travel by train, departing from Santa Apolónia Station, in Lisbon. This railway pass and other measures to promote mobility were expected to be announced in mid-September as part of Mobility Week, but the serious fires that affected the country at that time led to the cancellation of the Council of Ministers in Entroncamento.
CP’s Workers’ Committee (CT) considered that the 20-euro monthly rail pass will be a financial disaster for the carrier and show a lack of capacity to respond to increased demand.
