Portugal takes first step to introducing a single public transport ticket for entire country

The implementation will begin with the two largest metropolises, Lisbon and Porto, before expanding

At the end of last week, a new project, called 1Bilhete.pt, was launched in Portugal with the aim of gradually introducing interoperability between the ticketing systems of the country’s various public transport operators. The start of the initiative will initially focus on abridging the ticketing platforms of the two major metropolitan areas – Lisbon and Porto.

The protocol for the project was signed last Friday, 10 February, in Coimbra, between the Institute of Mobility and Transport (IMT), Transport Metropolitanos de Lisboa (TML) and Transport Intermodal do Porto (TIP).

Making travel fees compatible across Portugal

It was announced that the plan is to unfold the first part of the initiative in three steps.

In the first phase, scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year, interoperability will be ensured between the classic ticketing systems of the Metropolitan Area of ​​Lisbon and Porto. To this end, the “necessary technological conditions” will be created, namely through the harmonization of sales and loading equipment and validation and inspection. In this way, the Navegante (Lisbon) and Andante (Porto) cards will operate in an interoperable manner.

Then, from the first half of 2024, it is also expected that smartphones will be able to function as a point of sale and charging. That’s because, among the functionalities designed for the applications, there is the possibility of charging physical cards with trips from the different networks of national transport.

In the third step, during the second half of next year, the project will focus on open ticketing for credit and debit bank cards.

The dissemination of the platform throughout the rest of the Portuguese territory will depend on the adhesion of the competent authorities in terms of ticketing systems, explains the official portal of the project.