Lisbon’s Azambuja train line from the southwest to the northeastern part of Lisbon hasn’t been running on the weekends since 2015. It’s time to bring it back and promote this line to tourists and new Lisbon residents as an alternative to being on the road during the weekend.
The Azambuja Line Does Not Extend to Alcântara on the Weekends
With the extension of Lisbon’s red line, Alcântara will have a metro station sometime in the future (let’s say 10 years from the current time of this writing, if we’re lucky), but currently it doesn’t even have a train to the city on the weekend. After the arrival of the last train from Castanheira do Ribatejo, at 1:05 am on Saturday morning, the station is closed and only opens again at dawn on Monday, with the first train leaving at 5:56 am. A chain and a message indicating that the space is “off-limits to unauthorized personnel” signals the closure of the station.
On weekends and holidays, the Azambuja Line trains do not extend westward beyond Santa Apolónia. This means that passengers hoping to reach Alcântara must switch to a Carris bus and take the Cascais Line at Cais do Sodré. From here they can finally get off at Alcântara-Mar or continue to the beaches of Oeiras and Cascais. During the week, passengers coming from the Azambuja Line can reach beaches along the Cascais Line in 90 minutes, but with the weekend schedules and the closure of Alcântara-Terra station, this trip becomes much longer.
During the week, Alcântara is connected to the heart of Lisbon by train starting at Alcântara-Terra station. Currently, from Monday-Friday, the Azambuja Line starts at Alcântara-Terra and stops at Campolide, Sete Rios, Entrecampos, Roma-Areeiro, Marvila, Braço de Prata, Oriente, Moscavide and Sacavém, before stopping at various stops along the way to Castanheira do Ribatejo or Azambuja. But this is only during the week. On weekends and holidays, Alcântara-Terra is closed off by train to the rest of central Lisbon.
Do you need to go to the airport on the weekend from Alcântara and don’t have a car? Good luck – you will need to take a 30-minute bus (try that with luggage) followed by 30-minute metro + wait times for both. Unless, of course, you want to pay a ride-sharing app to take you directly to the airport for €10. Do you want to attend an event in Marvila, a growing arts/entertainment part of the city? You have no options except a car or bus on the weekends.
Still Not Enough Demand?
CP (Comboios de Portugal) stopped running the Azambuja Line to Alcantara-Terra on weekends and holidays on June 14, 2015 due to alleged lack of demand. In 2017, Carris trialed a return of trains to Alcântara-Terra during the summer, with a special offer on weekends during the period between July 15 and August 27 of that year. According to CP, the trial resulted in an average demand of about 50 people per train. This data was only based on tickets validated in Alcântara-Terra, which only has one ticket validator machine in the best of times. Incidentally, the one ticket purchasing machine at Alcântara-Terra was removed from the platform in December 2024 and hasn’t been replaced in over a month. The former machine was mostly used by those who buy one-time tickets and not by monthly pass holders. The last time we tried to use it, you couldn’t even use a credit card to buy a ticket. You had to use cash or coins. Currently, commuters can’t purchase or validate their tickets at Alcântara-Terra station, which is ok because no one ever checks your tickets on the Azambuja Line anyway.
Also bear in mind that, in 2017, during the trial to bring the Azambuja Line back to Alcantâra-Terra on weekends, the Navegante Metropolitano pass didn’t even exist. So residents of the Azambuja/Ribatejo area hoping to come to the beach would not have been able to have the Azambuja Line completely included in their travel pass, likely deterring some from making the journey.
Why the Azambuja Line Needs to Return
The Azambuja Line to Alcântara-Terra not running on weekends doesn’t only affect the access to the line’s beaches for those coming from Azambuja. Passengers from the north of Lisbon also lose the direct connection to Lisbon’s central stations, such as Roma-Areeiro, Entrecampos, and Sete Rios. People in Alcântara also cannot easily reach Sete Rios, where they can take the CP long distance train to the Algarve or connect to the blue metro line. They also must now take a Carris Metropolitana bus to reach the south bank of Lisbon instead of taking the Azambuja Line to Campolide, where they can take Fertagus trains to the south bank.
In the meantime, the most comfortable and dependable form of travel in Lisbon is blocked from residents and tourists on the weekends – all because of a study done in 2015. Since 2015, the number of residents in Lisbon has increased by around 4.6% – from 2,883,000 in 2015 to 3,015,000 at the end of 2023. While this may not sound like much, the number of tourists, also able to take the trains (if Lisbon marketed them appropriately) has also increased by nearly 51% during the same period. Let’s get some of these tourists out of cars and into the trains.
As a resident of Alcântara, I can also say that I would opt for the train instead of a ride-share if I could take one. Although it takes a bit longer, it is included in my monthly Navegante pass and I only need one train change at Oriente Station to the Red Metro Line that continues to the airport – a smooth and easy transition that is not affected by traffic jams. In comparison, on the weekends, I am forced to take a €15 Uber to my home in Alcântara (keep in mind that a monthly Navegante pass is €30) or take the Red Line all the way to São Sebastião and then change to a bus that on weekends can take up to 30 minutes to arrive and then another 30 minutes home, all while dragging luggage that is incredibly unfriendly to lug onto any public bus in Lisbon. The train, by comparison, has plenty of space to stand with your luggage, probably even more so on weekends.
Less Traffic, More Trains
The biggest gamechanger about the Alcântara-Terra-Azambuja line is its reliability (when Carris is not on strike). You never know when the next Carris bus will arrive in Alcântara. The signs that display the arrival times are only best guesses and times are often delayed or incorrect. I’ve seen signs that say a bus is coming in 40 minutes only to see it coming up the road over the horizon. I’ve seen three 742 route buses show up together (this happens quite frequently) to an Alcântara stop, which throws off the bus schedule completely and means that the unlucky person coming to the bus stop next may have to wait 40 minutes for their next bus. The Alcântara-Terra train to Azambuja comes twice an hour during the week, but you know when it’s coming and you can depend on it. While it may be slow to get started, it will take you to places hard to get to any other way, such as Marvila and Braça de Prata, two areas trying to market themselves more to tourists and residents with new developments. If you can spread out the tourists out to these areas, why not use a train you already have to do so, rather than unreliable buses and Ubers clogging the narrow roads?
The bottom line is: since 2015, Alcântara has continued to attract residents and tourists with the LX Factory, CUF Tejo (a major private hospital, opened in 2020), Mirari (an event complex, opened in 2023) continue to attract tourists, and a large international school (scheduled to open in 2025), about a 10-minute walk from Alcântara-Terra Station. Things have dramatically changed in the area since 2015. The idea that the Azambuja Line is not needed on the weekends should seriously be revisited. Waiting to assess demand again until the Red Metro Line gets extended to the area, as CP previously stated that they would do, does a major disservice to the residents and tourists of Lisbon, including many people hoping to get to the airport on the weekend.
I admit to being biased since I am a resident of Alcântara myself, but I know that I am not alone in how I feel about this issue. Buses do not replace trains in terms of reliability and comfort of travel. Get more people off the road and allow them a convenient, affordable, and reliable way to get around Lisbon from Alcântara to the middle of the city on the weekends.
