Alcântara-Terra, the station that closes on weekends
Alcântara will have a Metro station in three/four years, but currently it doesn’t even have a train at the weekend.
The Metro is expected to arrive in Alcântara in 2025/2026 with the extension of the Red Line, bringing the western area closer to the city centre. But Alcântara is already from the train to the heart of Lisbon through. As its name implies, the Belt Line – so often overlooked – encircles Lisbon, connecting the western, central and eastern parts of the city by heavy rail. This Line is a backbone of the capital; in Alcântara-Terra, the Azambuja Line overlaps the Cintura Line. From that station, trains depart and stop at Campolide, Sete Rios, Entrecampos, Roma-Areeiro, Chelas, Marvila, Braço de Prata, Oriente, Moscavide and Sacavém, before heading towards Castanheira do Ribatejo or Azambuja. But that’s all just during the week. On weekends and holidays, Alcântara-Terra is closed and that part of the city – which in the future will be a major intermodal interface – is more isolated.
Alcântar is the only country train station, located in a big city without working days. After the arrival of the last train from Castanheira do Ribatejo, at 1:05 am on Saturday, the station is closed and only reopens at dawn on Monday, with the first train starting at 5:56 am. A chain and a message indicating that the space is “prohibited to unauthorized personnel” signal the closure of the station. On weekends and holidays, the Azambuja Line trains stay in Santa Apolónia, forcing passengers who want to reach Alcântara to switch to a Carris bus and take the Cascais Line at Cais do Sodré. From here, you can finally leave for Alcântara-Mar or even head to the beaches of Oeiras and Cascais. As the public noticesduring the week, the Arrivals on the Azambuja Line can take 1h30 to the beaches on the line, but with passengers until the weekend and the Alcântara-Terra closing, this trip can take a lot longer..
CP stopped taking trains from the Azambuja Line to Alcântara-Terra on weekends and holidays on 14 June 2015 due to an alleged lack of demand. Contacted by Lisboa Para Pessoas, operator 01 which, on 2, tested a return of trains to Alcântara-Terra during the summer period, with a special offer on weekends between the 15th of July and the 27th of August of that year. “The verified demand was, on average, about 50 people per train”, said CP, not knowing what communication effort was made at the time, which could help to look for this service. On the other hand, these data are based only on validations in Alcântara-Terra; according to the newspaper Públicoat this station there is only one validator “hidden” behind the machine several times to sell operational tickets, which is normally presented only by those who buy these occasional tickets, and not by those who have a monthly pass.
The closure of Alcântara-Terra at the weekend does not only affect access to the beaches on the line for those coming from the sides of Azambuja; with trains diverted to Santa Apolónia, passengers from the north of Lisbon can also miss the direct connection to the city’s central stations, such as Roma-Areeiro, Entrecampos and Sete Rios. On the other hand, the population of Alcântara is further away from Campolide, where you can take the Fertagus train to the south bank (and vice versa), or from Sete Rios, where you can take the CP long-distance train towards the Algarve. The alternative to reach these two stations is the Carris buses or, in the case of access to the south bank, the Carris Metropolitana ones, which also stop in Alcântara.
“The real offer of Lisbon Urban Trains stems from the monitoring of demand, which aims to meet the mobility needs of the populations and effective solutions with the aim of increasing the levels of services provided”says the company. CP admits that it will carry out new demand studies when the Cascais Line is modernized, its future connection to the Belt Line in Alcântara, but also when the Metro arrives in this area of the city, “in the sense of being the most appropriate offer to customers”. What is certain is that, with the extension of the Red Line, Alcântara is connected to the central city and also to the city, through the eastern stations of Saldanha and Oriente, for example. “There are 70 trains running daily, representing more than 62,000 currently offered” in the AML, “sending that the average in peak hours of daily and end of day demand is around 50%, in the remaining periods of the day it is in the order of 30%”.
If all plans go as planned, Alcântara will be, in the not too distant future, a major intermodal interface for the city of Lisbon. In addition to the planned public space requalification projects that will give a new air to the entire area that today is deeply dominated by the highway, Alcântara is expected to receive the Red line of the Lisbon Metro, which will be connected to the future surface metro western IOLsand yet one new art direction, which will join as the Cintura and Cascais Lines and which will be properly connected to the Metro and LIOS. Through Alcântara, several bus lines from the rails and gives Metropolitan Rails; It is also envisaged to strengthen the cycling network and gives TURN in this area, with connections both to Campolide, via Avenida de Ceuta, and to Belém and Cais do Sodré via Avenida da Índia and 24 de Julho.