Porto's metro is going to Trofa, but you'll switch to a bus at Muro
The government approved 421 million euros for new Porto Metro lines to Gondomar and Trofa. On the Trofa line only two of nine stations are metro; the other seven are served by electric metrobus, with a change at Muro.
Portugal’s Council of Ministers approved 421 million euros on Thursday for two new Porto Metro lines, one to Gondomar and one to Trofa. The government’s statement does not draw the distinction. On the Trofa line, though, the metro only reaches the second station: from Muro onwards, you continue by electric bus.
Two lines, two systems
The Gondomar line is the conventional one. It runs for about seven kilometres and nine stations from Estádio do Dragão to Souto, in central Gondomar, for up to 237 million euros. Rails all the way.
The Trofa line costs up to 184 million, covers about ten kilometres and also has nine stations, from ISMAI in Maia to the Trofa interchange. Only Ribela is a metro station, though. Muro is shared between the two systems, and the other seven, from Serra to Interface Trofa, are served by metrobus, electric buses on a dedicated busway that mostly follows the old Guimarães railway corridor. Anyone travelling from Trofa into Porto will have to change at Muro.
It has been done before. Coimbra’s Mondego Mobility System already runs a metrobus along the old Lousã branch line, and the same Council of Ministers topped it up with as much as 66.3 million euros for fifteen years of maintenance and a fleet going from 35 to 40 vehicles.
You can still have your say
The Trofa line’s environmental impact study is open for public consultation until 12 October on the Participa portal, with two route options that differ only between the Serra and Lantemil stations. Both lines are due to be built between 2027 and 2031, funded largely by the Environmental Fund and the EU-backed Sustentável 2030 programme.
The money arrives in an awkward year for metros generally: Portugal’s metro systems were the only mode of transport to lose passengers between April and June, down 1% while rail grew more than 6%. Building new lines is not a contradiction, but the works only count if people ride them.
Image: Patrycja Rosa (ptrcnull) / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
