The Fertagus Users Commission sent a complaint to the European Commission on Thursday, March 12, against the Portuguese State for allowing passengers to be transported daily in conditions “outside European standards” and “with security risks”.
Speaking to the Lusa agency after a public presentation in Lisbon of the content of the complaint, the spokesperson for the Users’ Commission, Aristides Teixeira, said that the service provided by Fertagus, the railway line that connects the two banks of the Tagus via the 25 de Abril Bridge, between Lisbon and Setúbal, is an attack on public health, the integrity and safety of passengers.
“On Thursday we sent a complaint to the European Commission, Transport subcommittee, against the Portuguese State, which supervises Fertagus, due to unworthy conditions in which thousands of people are transported between the two banks and we ask that you intervene with the Government so that the situation changes”, he said.
In the complaint, according to Aristides Teixeira, the Users Committee reports that the The situation has worsened since 2025, with daily delays in the movement of trains at very low speeds and breakdowns.
“People gather on the docks, push each other, verbally and physically attack each other. They all want to get into the crushed carriages, including children, breathing on top of each other. In this suffocating atmosphere, there is always someone needing help and the train has to stop at the next station and wait for help”, he reported.
According to the Commission spokesperson, the Government is aware of the situation, but nothing is improving.
“When we talk about Nazism, the image that comes to mind is of concentration camps. Today when we talk about Fertagus, the image that comes to mind is that of thousands of people suffocating inside carriages, this is the pure and harsh truth”, he highlighted.
Aristides Teixeira also said that there are already people using the cars, making a financial effort, one or two days a week, just to not have to subject themselves to traveling unworthily on Fertagus trains.
The Commission spokesperson also highlighted that the complaint sent to the European Commission is an appeal to intervene with the Portuguese State so that “urgent measures can be taken to put an end to this situation that shames Portugal in the light of civilized Europe”.
“We hope that, upon becoming aware of this dramatic way in which they are transported, the Commission will ask the Government for clarification on this matter. It is a way of putting pressure on. It will be a slow process, but it will be a medium-term path for people to start being transported with the least dignity of the worst railway operator that exists in Portugal”, he said.
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