what’s going on?

HFor over 10 years, an employee at one of the cafés at Cais do Sodré station, in Lisbon, has known the movement of passers-by when getting off the train, on the way to the metro or before catching the boat. It measures the increase in transport use by the number of coffees, beers or cakes sold, and demand seems to have already surpassed the pre-pandemic period. At the counter, you can hear the stories of those who have left their car at home again, not so much because of the increase in the cost of living, but because, finally, the pandemic seems far away. Tourists have also come in force, even earlier than in other years, contributing to the weekend trains bursting at the seams, whether on the way to the beach or to the pastéis de Belém.

What you feel at the coffee counter corresponds, in part, to what the data from transport operators collected by Expresso reflect: both in Lisbon and in Porto, there are signs of a more accelerated increase in passengers in the first three months of the year, with particular intensity in March. Demand is approaching the pre-pandemic period and, although without certainties, the increase in the cost of living is one of the explanations — especially for those who find in transport a solution to leave their car at home and reduce their monthly expenses to €40 with displacements.

This is an article from the weekly Expresso. Click HERE to continue reading.