Cascais, Portugal, June 22, 2026 (Lusa) - The mayor of Cascais, Nuno Piteira Lopes (PSD), has welcomed the announcement of the sub-concession of the Cascais railway line, stating that the integration of rail and road transport promotes mobility and calling for free travel within his municipality.
According to the mayor, speaking to Lusa, Prime Minister Luís Montenegro’s announcement at the PSD Congress that the Cascais line would be the first in the country to be sub-concessioned “is in line with the vision” he has been advocating for the municipality in the Lisbon district, namely to “bring the management of the line closer to passengers”.
“The Cascais line runs through three municipalities, Cascais, Oeiras and Lisbon, and it is therefore important that these municipalities have a say in the terms of any future concession for the line,” Lopes said.
For the mayor, “mobility should be regarded as an essential public service”, and the “aim is to get more and more people using public transport, more and more people using the railway”.
In this regard, he added, the service must also be “constantly improving” and “able to be integrated with the existing free bus service in Cascais, and that we can also move towards making the Cascais line itself free for all those who work, live or study in the municipality”.
“The priority is to ensure that decision-making power remains close to the local authorities and that any model that is implemented, be it public, municipal or private, is assessed on the basis of the results it delivers: whether it provides a good service or not,” he emphasised.
Pointing out that “the line runs through all three municipalities”, Lopes noted, however, that “there is alignment between the thinking and strategic vision for this line among the mayors of Cascais, Oeiras and Lisbon”.
In fact, ahead of the 2025 local elections, the mayor of Cascais, Isaltino Morais, and his counterparts in Oeiras, Carlos Moedas, and Lisbon, expressed their willingness to take over the management of the railway line should it be subject to a sub-concession.
“Cascais can only intervene in the section of the line between Cascais and Carcavelos. And what I have always advocated is that, just as we already do with buses, we should also be able to offer residents of Cascais free travel on the railway line for all those who work, study or live in the municipality,” he reiterated, adding that each of the other municipalities would then have, “from a political point of view, the right to make the choices they see fit”.
Although “the terms of the concession” are not yet known, for Lopes the announcement “is already a major step forward” and “is in line with the strategic vision” he has advocated for the Cascais line, as “what really matters is ensuring a high-quality service” and “attracting more passengers to the train”.
Regarding the ongoing modernisation of the Cascais Line, “a promise that had been on the table for decades and across several governments”, but which the “minister for infrastructure has managed to secure”, the works “will be completed by the end of 2026” and the new trains “will begin to arrive once the line modernisation works have been completed”.
He therefore added: “I think we have a glimmer of hope that we will have a better, more punctual service, with better trains, and interoperability between road and rail transport; and so we are on the right track”.
The local authority aims to take over the operational and commercial management of the line, including the stations, and following Montenegro’s announcement in Anadia, Lopes hopes that “the process can now move forward quickly”.
LFS/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
