The initiative, an ‘anti-fasting’ campaign which includes slogans such as “travelling without having had breakfast affects all passengers”, comes after figures revealed that 46 passengers had fainted on trains during the first half of the year.
They caused delays on 51 trains for a total of 209 minutes, and mostly during peak morning rush hours, between 7am and 10am, and on packed trains.
This resulted in a series of delays, as train drivers are obliged to stop the trains and seek immediate medical assistance for commuters.
Medical response times to the emergencies are approximately 20 to 40 minutes.
According to the company which operates the rail link between Lisbon and Setúbal over the 25 April Bridge, all these cases were traced back to commuters not having eaten prior to boarding.
Between 2012 and 2016, 312 cases of sudden illness were registered by Fertagus, 82 of which occurred inside train carriages.
To prevent such episodes Fertagus recommends that its clients never start a journey without having eaten breakfast; that they always take a bottle of water with them, and, should they feel ill, they should get off at the next station and ask for help as opposed to staying on the train.
As part of this week’s action, fruit and yoghurts were symbolically distributed to passengers during morning periods to raise awareness about morning fasting.
Fertagus’s trains have a maximum capacity for 1,210 people, 476 of whom areseated. Every day, during peak times, the company carries some 40,000 passengers.