Minimum services ensure 50% of trains

CP – Comboios de Portugal said this Friday that the minimum services decided by the Arbitration Court for the strike by ticket inspectors and workers will ensure a “significant part” of the usual offer, starting on Sunday.

“This decision allowed CP to ensure a significant part of the usual offer, ensuring that the impacts on urban services in Lisbon and Porto, on the 11th and 14th of May [Sunday and Wednesday], are residual, and also contributing to ensuring that on the 12th and 13th of May [Monday and Tuesday] approximately 50% of the scheduled trains are guaranteed”, it highlighted in a statement.

The carrier recalled that it “proposed setting a minimum service of 30%, with the Arbitration Court considering that 25% would be sufficient to guarantee essential mobility”.

The Arbitration Court of the Economic and Social Council defined the implementation of minimum services of 25% on all scheduled trains”, namely Long Distance, Regional and Urban trains in Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra, “following the strike decreed by the SFRCI — Sindicato Ferroviário da Revisão Comercial Itinerante, between 00:00 on May 11 and 24:00 on May 14, 2025”.

The operator “expressed its agreement with this decision, contrary to the most recent ones, in which the proposal to carry out minimum services below the limits that allow rail transport to operate with minimum guarantees of passenger safety, forced a total cancellation of trains”.

This decision is, in his opinion, “ fairer, as it protects customers’ rights to mobility, work, health and education, whilst ensuring respect for the right to strike” .

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Strikes at CP will continue over the weekend, but the impact is expected to ease, with drivers expected to go on strike on Saturday and overtime, and ticket inspectors and workers joining the protest on Sunday.

Therefore, the strike called by the Machinists' Union (SMAQ) will continue from Saturday to Wednesday, covering only overtime work, including work on a weekly rest day, according to information on the union's website.

A new strike will begin on Sunday, also until Wednesday, by the Commercial Itinerant Railway Review Union (SFRCI), ticket inspectors and ticket office workers.

This strike is partial, taking place between 5:00 am and 8:30 am on Monday and Tuesday, as explained to Lusa by the president of SFRCI, Luís Bravo. On Sunday and Wednesday, the strike will only affect long-distance trains “in a residual way”, he added.