budgetary constraints and the need to look to the metropolitan territory beyond the city of Porto dictated the decision to go ahead with the extension of line D of the subway to the Vila D’este in vila nova de Gaia, simultaneously with the construction of a part of the circular of the Harbour, between St. Benedict and the House of Music. The Metro should launch the tender for implementation of the projects by June this year, and at the same time has orders to advance with the previous studies for three new lines, serving the Maia, Gondomar and Vila Nova de Gaia (Devesas).
Within the multiple chances that the CITTA – Research Centre of Territory, Transport and Environment, Department of Civil Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering of Porto University studied, at the request of Metro, the connection to Santo Ovídeo-Vila D This does not appear very well positioned. The demand estimated is 5520 new customers on a working day, against 27.775 expected on the stretch of House of Music-St. Benedict, but none of the other options better classified in the study of the team led by the Academic Paulo Pinho would fit in the package of 290 million euros available for this investment, taken from the 181 million needed for the work in the Port, which was at the top, in terms of demand.
"Overall, the proposal of the new line "House of Music – São Bento" stands out very clearly from the other in all indicators, particularly when we take into consideration the small size and the reduced number of new stations (only 2). It is also the only one that allows you to generate the greatest gains in existing stations in comparison with the new stations. In other words, not only presents a high attractiveness as is the proposal that best improves the existing network and this way further contributes to the sustainability of the network of Metro do Porto, view in your set", read-in in the study of CITTA to the Metro.
Without the money from the POSEUR (Operational Programme for Sustainability and Efficiency in the Use of Resources) to invest in metro – an option taken in phase of programming, which was "an error", insists the minister of the Environment – the current Government has attempted to allocate 500 million achieved in the Plan Juncker to the important works in the two networks of metropolitan areas in the country. And Matos Fernandes was satisfied with the progress of the projects for the rows, Mouse-Cais do Sodré, in Lisbon, and the extension of Line D on Gaia and link building Are Bento-House of Music. "We are to meet the Agreement of Paris," insisted the minister, carrying on the key of the positive environmental impact of the metro, by decreasing car traffic and the emission of greenhouse gases.
The more than 30 thousand customers daily (33.295, in the estimates of the CITTA) expected in the two new stretches to be built in Porto in Gaia until the end of 2021 represent a 20% increase in annual traffic of passengers in this transport system, which today helps to withdraw 12 thousand cars per day from the streets. This data was also scored by Rui Moreira, who praised the minister and the prime minister António Costa for noticing the problems and challenges of cities, returning to ensure public investment to the sector.
"To this purpose I would like to say that the line that now will be built in the Port is the expansion of the Metro that we wanted to. Of course that we wanted, we want more. The connection to Campo Alegre, the densification in the urban fabric, connections to more peripheral and radial make sense, and would be equally good investments. But with the resources that were available, I think I have been making the correct decision, at least with regard to the Port", he took on Rui Moreira.
In terms of public transport, the president of the Chamber of the Port revealed that Friday will be announced the winner of the competition for the design of the Intermodal terminal of Campaign, another important infrastructure for the mobility in the region. And, it is established, that is the design of the new metro line in the city, said to be in the best conditions to study the proposed corridors dedicated to buses (Metro-Bus) in some points of the Port, now that the county assumes, with the other four local authorities in the management of the STCP.
Already the socialist Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues pointed out that Vila Nova de Gaia, with its 300 thousand inhabitants, "there is much need for the extension of the yellow line", a project "that serves thousands of people and help the sustainability of the company". The mayor insisted on the positive effects of this extension "to the development of the centre of creative industries and production center of the RTP to the Mount of the Virgin, to the consolidation of the Hospital de Gaia, currently under reconstruction, as a regional reference in various specialties," and "for the liberation of prejudices" that still affect Vila D’este, "a specific territory in the phase of urban regeneration", he thanked.
After years of no works in the Metro system, the meeting of the board of directors in which the new lines were approved, marks a new phase in the life of the company, which will now launch, by Summer, the contest for the implementation of the project. Already the tender for the construction of the lines should only be released in May 2018, assuming that the work can start at the beginning of next year and be completed in 2021.
A process in which several government "fought", of course, to see their territories, served by metro, whether the minister wants the mayors praised the way the decision-making process, based on the study of CITTA, was respected by the shareholders, the State and the Junta Metropolitana do Porto. And, in spite of having realized, for the above-mentioned study, that the indicators would point to the advantages of the densification network in the city of Porto, in the name of "territorial cohesion" the Metro has been mandated by the shareholders to develop feasibility studies for the second line of Gaia, which came on a third level, indicators of performance, and involves the construction of a new bridge, which makes it very expensive, and to evaluate two other connections.
One of them is the second line of Gondomar, via Valbom, whose course, provided there are years and studied by the CITTA left much to be desired, but that now has a proposal, prepared at the request of the municipality, with the most successful indicators of demand and costs around € 110 million. The second is a new connection to the Mayan from the Hospital of St. John, who had been thrown into a third phase of the metro – the last of the priorities in your planning stages up to here well-known – but which has now reappeared. Without funds available in the current Community Framework, the minister has not committed, however, with the construction, hoping that the study allows assessing the validity of these investments in the face of the other that were being placed on top of the table.
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