Coimbra, Portugal, June 1, 2026 (Lusa) - Metro Mondego’s chair said on Monday that all accidents involving 'metrobus' vehicles recorded since the start of commercial operations were attributable to factors other than system failure.
Nevertheless, the company will implement several changes to reduce accidents.
According to Leonel Serra, who has been in the post for around two months, the Mondego Mobility System recorded five road accidents and one pedestrian collision between January and May, and investigators attributed none of the incidents to a fault in the system.
“The system has always functioned as designed. We always analyse the data and the evidence consistently shows that the system performs effectively,” the director told Lusa, adding that the ‘metrobus’ drivers (articulated buses on a dedicated lane) always respected red lights in recorded accidents.
“Everything is analysed, and the incidents resulted from human error,” he noted.
Nevertheless, Leonel Serra said that Metro Mondego is constantly analysing possible adjustments to the signalling, namely longer red light times for cars, repeated traffic lights in drivers’ line of sight, or ‘yellow boxes’ (yellow markings on the road surface) at crossing points with the ‘metrobus’ lane.
“We analyse every accident and will substantially reduce the number of accidents, within what is technically possible,” he added.
Regarding cars encroaching on the bus lane, Leonel Serra pointed out that the entire network is under video surveillance and that, to date, the police had received no reports; this will begin “from now on”, both with the PSP in Coimbra and with the GNR in Lousã and Miranda do Corvo, to issue fines for such behaviour.
Enforcement of ticket validation on the system also began on 23 May, after the Institute for Mobility and Transport (IMT) swore in the teams hired for this purpose.
“It will encourage many people, whether distracted or negligent, who previously did not validate their tickets, to start doing so. I am convinced that validation rates will also increase as a result,” he noted.
Until mid-June, enforcement will take an educational approach, in which anyone travelling without a valid ticket will be “asked, at the next station, to validate” their ticket.
Thereafter, “the law will be applied, which is to issue fines”, he said.
JGA/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
