Lisbon, Feb. 19, 2025 (Lusa) - The Lisbon Municipal Assembly has recommended that the council ask the government and the Metropolitano for the "necessary consideration" regarding the Red Line extension to Alcântara, but the deputy-mayor emphasised that this work is already underway.
"Today, for me, the issue of expanding the Red Line is how we're going to get the metro to Algés," said the deputy mayor of Lisbon, Filipe Anacoreta Correia (CDS-PP), who is responsible for Mobility, emphasising that the works for the extension between São Sebastião and Alcântara have already been awarded.
At stake is the extension of the Lisbon Metro's Red Line between São Sebastião and Alcântara, with the construction of four new stations, namely Amoreiras, Campo de Ourique, Infante Santo and Alcântara.
In 2022, at the proposal of the PCP, the Lisbon Municipal Assembly held a debate called "Towards a route for the Red Line of the Lisbon Underground". As a result of this work, the municipal councillors approved on Tuesday the report drawn up in this context, with recommendations addressed to the city council, most of which were approved unanimously.
One recommendation, made possible by the Chega vote against it, is for the municipal government to insist that Lisbon City Council be once again represented on the Metropolitano's Board of Directors.
The AML also wants the council to "fight and intervene with the government so that the route of the Metro's Red Line, which is to be implemented, guarantees the preservation and enhancement of the city's cultural and natural heritage, seeking to minimise the impacts and ensuring that the integrity of Jardim da Parada, Tapada das Necessidades and Baluarte do Livramento will be preserved, as well as enhancing the city's trees and green parks."
In response to the municipal councillors, the deputy mayor considered that the time it took the AML to produce these recommendations should be worthy of "some reflection" by those who want to actively participate in processes that have demanding timetables from the point of view of political and legal needs.
"Where was the municipal assembly when this was being discussed and when this was being decided?" asked Anacoreta Correia, noting that when this council took office in October 2021, Metropolitano informed them that the decisions had already been made after “years and years of study”.
"Our political option, and we accept it, is that we didn't want to postpone the process of the metro reaching territories that were desired in the city and, therefore, not interfere in processes whose maturity of the decision had been preceded by our council," he explained, considering that it is necessary to have “a minimum institutional sense otherwise things won't move forward”.
Anacoreta Correia criticised the "exhaustive" discussion of processes in Portugal, "sometimes for decades, as in the case of the airport", which postpones the completion of works, stating that Campo de Ourique and Alcântara "really want the metro, they really need it, and it's not in 20 years, they need it now": "If it were possible, it would be now".
Regarding the possibility of altering the planned route for the extension of the Red Line, even considering that the work will no longer be financed by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) due to the missed deadlines, the deputy mayor said that when processes go ahead, they have "implications of millions" of euros, questioning "at what cost" everything can now be stopped.
Although Anacoreta Correia understands that there may be objections to the options decided on and that the municipal deputies are demanding access to the studies, he stressed the need to "work on minimising the impacts and improving the solutions", adding that, concerning the station planned for Campo de Ourique, the Metropolitano has assured that "it will not jeopardise Jardim da Parada" and has decided to reduce the number of exits at this station from four to two.
SSM/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
