The Algarve’s Council and the Environmental Fund are subsiding bus and rail travel across the Algarve by paying for half of each ticket purchased.
The measure was approved on March 8, by the mayors’ group, AMAL, and will be applied from May with no mention of when the promotion will end.
The Public Transport Tariff Reduction Support Plan was unanimously approved at the Intermunicipal Council meeting, which is hardly surprising as the Environmental Fund is stumping up around €1 million, 97.5% of the total cost in the Algarve region, with local ratepayers funding the remaining 2.5%.
AMAL said the initiative will increase the demand for public transport across the Algarve region as part of its focus on environmentally friendly solutions, i.e. fewer cars on the roads.
The mayors’ group expects that this measure will also resolve the lack of public transport in the Algarve region, but does not say how this will be achieved.
The subsidy is a nationwide scheme with a total spend of €104 million, so the Algarve will receive a rather miserly 1% of the total spend by the Environmental Fund