Lisbon, Oct. 21, 2025 (Lusa) - The Portuguese public transport operator in Lisbon, Carris, has stated that it was unaware of any non-compliance on the part of the company that maintained the Glória funicular, after a preliminary report indicated flaws and omissions in the work carried out by the service provider.
In the preliminary report on the accident, released on Monday and accessed by Lusa, the Office for the Prevention and Investigation of Aircraft and Railway Accidents (GPIAAF) says that the inspections scheduled for the day of the accident "are recorded as having been carried out, although it has evidence that they were not carried out at the time indicated on the corresponding record sheet".
In the statement, Carris pointed out that the company's board of directors was unaware of "all the facts described" in the report, when it points out that the current service provider, MNTC, may not have properly fulfilled the contract, since "this breach was never reported by the Carris Electric Mode Maintenance Department or by the Contract Manager, who in fact reiterated their utmost confidence in the performance of this company, even after the accident occurred".
"At the moment, the respective responsibilities are being investigated, and the Director of Electric Mode Maintenance has, in the meantime, been dismissed," it added.
The transport company also pointed out that "it was never communicated to the company's management, nor was any technical proposal made in this respect" regarding the perception of technicians and workers "that the safety of the system depended entirely on the cable and that the braking system was not effective in immobilising the cabins without the cable", as is pointed out in the report.
"In fact, the report reiterates that no complaints were reported regarding the maintenance of lifts and the funicular, not even, as already mentioned, about the alleged poor performance of the lift maintenance service provider," added Carris.
Carris also considered that, "as a mere operator", it does not accept "that it is solely responsible for aspects relating to the safety of the operation of the funiculars", as stated in the report, "due to a clear lack of legal and contractual authority to define the technical and safety regulations applicable to the commissioning and operation of the Glória funicular and to carry out the respective (self) supervision".
"The technical regulation and respective supervision of the Glória funicular should very clearly be the responsibility of the indirect State administration entity with extensive and historical powers in this area (currently the IMT, IP)," it argued, pointing out that the IMT (Institute for Mobility and Land Transport), "based on current law and other regulatory provisions", already exercises this regulation on "several similar facilities included in the Carris concession (the Santa Justa and Bica Lifts)".
The accident involving the Glória funicular on 3 September caused 16 deaths and around two dozen injuries, among Portuguese and foreign nationals of various nationalities.
The investigation into the Glória accident detected faults and omissions in the maintenance of the funicular, also pointing to a lack of training for employees and supervision of the work carried out by the service provider.
According to investigators, "although the maintenance actions contractually planned and scheduled were being recorded as completed in a proprietary registration system, to which Carris has direct access, evidence was gathered that such registration does not correspond to the tasks that were actually performed".
In the note, Carris also indicated that it will await "the final report for a more comprehensive and concrete statement on the investigation of the causes of the accident," since the document states that the information presented is "still incomplete" and therefore "its content should not be understood as including final conclusions about the accident.‘’
Carris insisted that it is conducting "several internal and external audits in the area of quality, as it holds several certifications" and stated that it will draw up an implementation plan after "analysing and commenting on the recommendations" sent to it by the the Office for the Prevention and Investigation of Aircraft and Railway Accidents (GPIAAF).
In response to the preliminary report, the Lisbon transport company also pointed out that the Glória funicular has seen "stable use" in recent years, but that "the levels of use of this elevator (in terms of trips and number of passengers) were, in 2025, below the figures for 2005".
The Lusa news agency questioned the external company hired by Carris, responsible for maintaining the Glória funicular, but Ricardo Serrano Vieira, lawyer for MNTC - Serviços Técnicos de Engenharia, Lda, postponed a response to the GPIAAF's preliminary report.
According to Carris, the maintenance of the subsystems of the Glória, Bica and Lavra funiculars and the Santa Justa lift has been contracted to a service provider for over 20 years.
The current provider, MNTC, "has been providing maintenance since 2019".
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