You have already noticed that I have an affective and academic connection to Barcelona, where I have been frequently lately, precisely because of my studies.
When I stay there, I use the city's public transport, especially the surface metro, which connects the neighboring towns to the big city, which are themselves lands with a very high population concentration, such as Sabadell, the end of the line I use the most. , as it connects Barcelona to the Autonomous University, an institution that has its own stop, given the importance it occupies in the school landscape of this city.
In 25 minutes, paying €1,20 for a single ticket, I travel a distance similar to the one I currently do to get to work, as I come daily from Lagoa to Faro.
Without any collisions, trains and passengers leave every five minutes, at rush hour, and arrive, without problems, at their destinations, without harming wallets and the environment, because the price of the regular trip is even cheaper and leaving the car at home ( which, by the way, to circulate within Barcelona you need a special permit and pay a circulation tax) is a rest. Within the city there are transports to everywhere, in every way.
They will tell me: – “We are talking about Barcelona, one of the great cities of Europe”. True, I do not deny. But isn't the Algarve, all of it, a large region of Europe, with as many or more tourists and residents, who need to travel daily and who, in order to do so, have few possibilities, which go by bus (which in my case it takes 1h30 to make the trip), a train (faster, but far from being one meter of surface and without conditions of comfort in keeping with the time) and the car (which needs fuel, which we currently pay at around 2,00 € the liter, plus tolls, because we are a territory of wealthy people, who can pay to go to work).
Someone who travels a lot and knows practically the whole of Europe, told me a few days ago: «Algarvians are forced to travel by car, because there is no transport».
O Sul Informação recently reported that the “Algarve will have a single pass for all means and transport operators”. I read it with a smile on my mouth, not with satisfaction, because this is something that seems to me to have been natural and feasible for a long time, with political and legislative will, if necessary. The smile was really one of those who stay here, hanging on their face, not knowing if they are from irony, from indifference, from not knowing how to react…
Mention was made of «a common mobility project, managed by AMAL»… What project can be truly potentiating, if it does not include viable solutions for circulation, environmental defenders and friendly to those who live and visit our area?
CP also announced in June this year and within the scope of the Modernization of the Algarve Line, which would start the contract for the electrification of the section of the Algarve Line with approximately 45 kilometers in length between Tunes and Lagos».
Starting something that should have been done, years and years ago, only puts us on the level of those who should have done and didn't... Everything is invested in the great centers and the rest of the territory, which concentrates a population of enterprising people, generating wealth and capable of an almost stoic resistance, sees the measures, which they need, always being relegated to the calends, because there are always something else to do in the greater Lisbon, or in the greater Porto. And, note, I have nothing against both, but the country is more than that and the other citizens also pay the same taxes.
I do not write this text, I clarify, to stick to any political, populist or any other theory. I feel a complete aversion to the hollow speeches of those who take advantage of the difficulties we all experience to structure their party strategies, which in fact only have objectives linked to positioning, individualism, “national-escaladism”, forgive the neologism.
I write this because we have, sadly and unfortunately, transports “to cry for more”, really, because they are insufficient in terms of regularity, offer, and quality. More than a pass, we need to have a place to use it. And those who can command and occupy positions, that's why they have to fight, for the sake of a region that gives a lot to the country and where, at this level, we are at the tail end of the continent.
Author: Sandra Côrtes Moreira has a degree in Social Communication from the FCSH of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, a Master's in Educational Communication from the Faculties of Arts and Human and Social Sciences of the Un. from Lisbon and Algarve and Master in La Educación en la Sociedad Multicultural by the Universidad de Huelva. She is a doctoral candidate in Educomunicación y Alfabetización Mediática at the Universidad de Huelva.
Superior Language and Communication Technician at the Municipality of Faro, is also Advisor to the Information Office of the Diocese of Algarve, member of the Pastoral do Turismo and ONPT team.
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