“Good sense prevailed over the fanaticism of ideology,” says Costa about the Rail – the Public.en

The prime minister believes that the passage of the Rails to the city of Lisbon shows that "common sense prevailed over the fanaticism of ideology" and stresses that the State "does no favor" to take over the historical debt of the company.

António Costa was speaking at the signing ceremony of the memorandum of understanding of the new model of management of the company, which took place this Monday.

"The State does not do here any favors, because it remains responsible for that which is already responsible, which is the debt that you created," he said, referring to a value that, in the past year, amounted to more than eur 800 million. The argument António Costa is that this value resulted from "a failure for 40 years, under successive governments, of the responsibilities and obligations of the State" in respect of "financing of the transport system".

"The State does not come with any obligation that is not already his," he stressed, adding that at the same time if you are "releasing" the Portuguese "finance" the Rails. This is because from 1 January 2017 this will be a competence of the Chamber of Lisbon.

In his speech, António Costa, and noticed that with the municipalization of the company "puts an end to the litigation history between the State, the nationalized, and the city." For the ex-president of the municipality, the agreement now signed "could already have been signed a few years ago", something that, in his view, not only happened on the "extremism" of the Government of Passos Coelho.

"I’m sure that the city earns a lot from this", fired, whereas with the step now taken will definitely get back the time that the goal that pointed to the Rail was "to produce Ebitdas [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization], and don’t carry people".

Also the minister of the Environment pointed out that what is intended with the municipalization of the company is a "strengthening of the offer" and an "improvement of the quality of the service". "It is important to act quickly," said João Pedro Matos Fernandes, considering that this will help the new pricing for children and the elderly now announced.

"happens to be the local authority to ensure that the reporting obligations of a public service company is obligated to compensate so that your results are tend to be positive," said the ruler, adding that as in other situations, the State "retains the support of the fares that have social support".

Matos Fernandes said that "the current status" of the workers "is maintained" with the municipalization of the Rails and ensured that the fact that this company and the Lisbon Subway "have different owners without prejudice to any of its joint". The second said, that the same is guaranteed in the mou now signed, which defines that none of the companies will create new bonds of transport which may not be used in the other.