The Carris Metropolitana 'App' was presented to journalists by those responsible for the application and the directors of Transportes Metropolitanos de Lisboa (TML), Faustino Gomes and Rui Lopo.

The chairman of the board of directors of TML, Faustino Gomes, explained that the 'App' "is not a journey planner", but a site where information is provided to passengers in order to "give them the confidence to use Carris Metropolitana".

Rui Lopo, a member of the board of directors of TML, explained that the 'App' will allow passengers to see, in real-time, whether a Carris Metropolitana bus "is late and how full it is", putting "more pressure on operators to meet schedules".

The application will also allow a search by stop and by line (bus number), and personalised alerts and warnings can be set.

For now, it will not be 100% available for blind users, and those responsible acknowledge the need to work on some details.

Rui Lopo recalled that the company operates in 15 of the 18 municipalities in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (except Lisbon, Cascais and Barreiro) and that the service "already reaches Vendas Novas".

"1,700 buses circulate per day, driven by three thousand drivers and transporting 620 thousand passengers/day normally, having reached 650 thousand at peak times", said Rui Lopo, referring to passengers with valid tickets, acknowledging that there will be "many more" circulating on the 730 lines with 12,500 stops.

The official added that by the end of the year, "demand is expected to be 20% higher than in 2019", adding that, currently, the numbers, after the peak with the introduction of the Navegante pass, mean that the operation is "above" the figures from that time.

"It is expected to reach 165 million passengers transported by December of this year", he said, recalling that in 2023, 141 million passengers were transported and that, between January and July, there were municipalities that saw growth "above 30%".

Faustino Gomes said that the goal is to include all operators [train, boats] in the application, which could happen "within two or three years", given that there is a working group and there has already been a joint application for a project.

Regarding the timetables on paper and at the stops, both officials acknowledged the complexity of something "apparently so simple", but which depends on many factors, in addition to the fact that they can change from semester to semester depending on school timetables, which "are not yet known".

"The fact that a doctor leaves a certain time slot at a health centre can also be a factor in changing the timetable on a bus since it is necessary to serve people", said Rui Lopo.

Carris Metropolitana is a brand created by TML, under which municipal and intermunicipal public road transport operates in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (AML).