Train passengers in the Algarve are at their wit’s end with the crumbling state of the region’s railway, which they say is “embarrassing” and is only pushing people away.
“It is absolutely ridiculous,” says Ana Tarrafa from the Algarve railway users’ commission (CULA).
“Every day we talk about sustainability and mobility, about creating more bicycle paths and using our cars less, and then we do this – exclude people from the railway,” she told Lusa news agency at Faro’s railway station during an event organised to defend the public railway service.
It is a national issue, she admits, but one that has been getting progressively worse in the Algarve where there are almost daily complaints about “trains that never arrive, one-hour delays, replacement buses and closed down stations and stops”.
She also complains that train schedules are not compatible with working people’s timetables and are also hard to align with the schedules of other means of public transportation. As Tarrafa points out, some train stations are located far away from towns, such as those in Loulé or Albufeira.
Even tourists are “shocked” when they see how dysfunctional the railway system really is in the Algarve, she says.
“Many foreign tourists use trains in their home countries and then get here, to a country that is supposedly developed, and ride diesel trains that are 50 years old,” she told Lusa.
The head of the railway passengers’ commission also urges the government to invest in modernising the railway and stations and hiring more staff in the companies linked to the sector.
michael.bruxo@algarveresident.com
Photo: BRUNO FILIPE PIRES/OPEN MEDIA GROUP
