The Algarve train service is slowly committing suicide, says local MP, Cristóvão Norte criticising Comboios de Portugal (CP) for treating people with disrespect.
The PSD Member of Parliament says that "there has been a deterioration in the CP service in the Algarve, particularly over the last year and more sharply since August," which has culminated in the abolition of 36 trains services in last ten days.
José Carlos Barros, another local MP, has joined Norte in submitting a petition to the Government that demands that 'normal service is resumed' and, “if this is not possible, that road transport is laid on between all stations, not just selected ones.
According to Cristóvão Norte, most of the cancellations over of the last ten days were between Vila Real de Santo António and Faro, adding to the year’s total of 716 cancelled trains on the Algarve regional line.
"The railways are underdeveloped in the region and, in this day and age, it is shocking that people are being mistreated so. Many trains are cancelled without warning and without any alternative, disrupting people's lives, their rights are being ignored without any consideration. Worse, CP is not guaranteeing an alternative, as it must, because the replacement buses do not serve all the stations and stops, missing out Monte Gordo, Cacela, Conceição, Porta Nova, Luz, Livramento and Fuzeta.
For Norte, "this is how the railroad commits suicide: users lose confidence and do not return, people and mobility in the region are reduced, many customers with monthly rail passes never know whether or not they will have a train."
"The situation will continue to deteriorate", according to the MP, because "nothing was done to acquire or rent trains to fill these gaps - and, the electrification of the Algarve Line which, according to the Government will be completed in 2019, has not even been launched."
VRSA station, in 'the good old days'
