According to the source from the company that manages the Navegante card, it is not yet possible to confirm whether “there was a cyberattack or an internal problem” with the mobile application.
According to the source, “the previous version was restored and the application is beginning to recover”, with the app’s managers having already noted that “free travel and use of the application have been recorded”.
The source recalled that users up to the age of 19 can download the free young student pass onto the application. If you update your Navegante card details by 31 October, your card will be valid until you are 19 or until its expiry date.
Users aged between 19 and 23 must select the option to extend the free youth pass in the app, update their details and submit proof of registration, rather than a declaration, as was required until this year. This means that the free Navegante card will be valid until September 2025.
On Tuesday, TML explained that the mobile phone app had been under cyber attack since the previous day and that it was impossible to top up transport passes for the Lisbon Metropolitan Area using this method.
“The cyber attack was duly reported to the authorities and we still do not know where it came from,” the company said at around 10:30 on Tuesday, stating that “every effort was being made to resolve the problem.”
The Navegante card can be topped up at all physical locations where it was already possible to do so before the possibility was made available this year by the mobile app.
“It is usual for there to be a large influx of people at this time of year to renew access to the free pass that students have to do every year. This year it was extended until the end of October, but it is normal for people to be very busy at this time of year, so the app was a way of avoiding queues”, explained the official source, recalling the existence of a line to activate the free pass for young students (218 206 050).
Users can also top up the card at ATMs, at the ticket offices of transport operators and at the vending machines of CP – Comboios de Portugal, Metropolitano de Lisboa, Metro Sul do Tejo, Transtejo/Soflusa and Fertagus, as well as at the Navegante Payshop agent network.
The Navegante card is a monthly pass, with several types, that can be used on all public transport in the 18 municipalities of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, such as the Carris and Carris Metropolitana road networks, CP and Fertagus trains, the Lisbon Metro, the Metro Sul do Tejo and the MobiCascais bus network, among others.
The Lisbon Metropolitan Area includes the municipalities of Lisbon, Loures, Odivelas, Amadora, Oeiras, Cascais, Sintra, Mafra and Vila Franca de Xira, in the district of Lisbon, and Almada, Seixal, Barreiro, Alcochete, Palmela, Setúbal, Sesimbra, Moita and Montijo, in the district of Setúbal.
The pass can be topped up at Navegante Carris Metropolitana spaces, at Navegante stations (self-service), at the Transtejo/Soflusa assisted Navegante point at Cais do Sodré river station and at the assisted Navegante point at the Parques Tejo store (CC Dolce Vita Miraflores).
The municipal pass costs 30 euros and the metro pass costs 40 euros, prices that have remained unchanged since their creation in 2019.