The trains in the Algarve «are at grade zero» and CP «treats people without respect», considers Cristóvão Norte. The PSD deputy, elected by the circle of Faro, states that «there has been, particularly in the last year and more acutely since August, a degradation of the CP service in the Algarve», which culminated in the suppression of 36 trains in the last ten days.
The deputy has already presented, together with José Carlos Barros, a request to the Government demanding "the prompt restoration of train circulation normality" and that, "when this is not possible, ensure mandatory road transport to all stations and stops ». The deputies also asked that users be given advance notice of deletions.
According to Cristóvão Norte, citing data from CP, the suppression of the last ten days happened, mainly, in the section between Vila Real de Santo António and Faro and, since the beginning of the year, 716 connections on the Algarve Line have already been cut.
The deputy considers that “the railway is underdeveloped in the region and, these days, the mistreatment to which users are subjected is shocking: many trains are suppressed, without warning, without alternatives, disrupting people's lives, their rights crushed without consideration. Worse, CP is not ensuring the road alternative that it is obliged to, because the replacement buses do not serve all stations and stops (Monte Gordo, Cacela, Conceição, Porta Nova, Luz, Livramento and Fuzeta)».
For Cristóvão Norte, “this is how the railroad commits suicide, users lose confidence, they don't come back, and people and mobility in the region are lost. People, many of them with monthly passes, never know if they have a train or not».
"The situation will continue to deteriorate", according to the deputy, because "nothing has been done to acquire or rent trains to make up for these failures, and the electrification of the Algarve Line, which, according to the Government, would not even be completed in 2019 yet it was launched". In addition, he continues, «the Government has already assumed that the work in the Algarve will be left to the end».
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