Transport

Passenger transport

The "Passenger transport" fact sheet examines the modal split of this type of transport in Portugal and in the European Union.

Description: 

The transport sector is one of the main sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and is also responsible for high levels of air and noise pollution, which can seriously damage human health and ecosystems.

When we consider the environmental impact of passenger transport, the modal split becomes particularly significant due to the differences in environmental performance, such as resource consumption, GHG and pollutant emissions and noise, between the various transport modes.

In Portugal, transports represent a major proportion of the final energy consumption, and road transport is responsible for almost all that consumption. It is also noted that land transport is mainly responsible for the consumption of petroleum-based fuels for energy purposes, thus contributing decisively to the country's external energy dependence. As a result of the type of energy mix used, this sector is also responsible for 22% of the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, in 2015, exerting strong pressure on the environment.

The transfer from individual transport to public transport is one of the long-term objectives of the Strategic Plan for Transport and Infrastructures which recognizes the modal imbalance in passenger transport, with a strong prevalence of individual transport, and calls for an offer of public passenger transport services at the local, regional and national level with quality and adequate levels of service provision to meet the needs of the populations and promote a higher adoption of public transport.

This fact sheet concerns mainland Portugal and the Autonomous Regions of Madeira and Azores and shall be updated on an annual basis.

Objectives and targets: 
  • The 2014-2020 Strategic Plan for Transport and Infrastructures sets a number of targets, most notably the 15% increase in the number of passengers x kilometre (pkm) transported in public transit services, by 2020.
  • The Green Growth Commitment identifies the "Mobility and Transport" sector as one of the ten areas of intervention for a green transition in Portugal and sets 14 objectives quantified for 2020 and 2030, among which an increase in the use of public transit, in order to achieve 12.528 billion pkm transported in public transit services by 2020 and 15.296 billion by 2030.
Progress analysis:

Number of passengers by public transport mode

Notas: In 2014, the figures regarding the crossings of the river Tagus were updated according to a ticket-based method for calculating the number of passengers, and the figures from 2013 were reviewed according to this criterion. From 2015 onwards, the ITRP started covering City Councils from mainland Portugal in general, so the results that are now published do not allow a direct comparison with past figures (break in series).
Source: INE, 2018

In 2017, according to data from the Transport and Communication Statistics, road transport was used by 514.8 million passengers in mainland Portugal, corresponding to an increase of 0.3% compared to the preceding year. Rail transported 375.9 million passengers, of which 141.9 million travelled in urban/suburban trains and 234.0 million travelled in the 3 light rail transport systems (Lisboa, Porto and Sul do Tejo), reflecting an increase of 5.1%. A total of 20.7 million passengers used inland waterway transport.

In that same year, the most significant increases when compared with the previous year occurred in urban/suburban trains (+6.0%). Light rail transport and inland waterway and showed growth of 5.1% and 5.5%, respectively.

Also in 2017, maritime transport grew by 6.4% over the previous year.

Evolution in the number of passenger-km by public transport mode

Notas: (1) From 2013 onwards, the results regarding passengers transported by the Lisbon underground were obtained using a different calculation method and excluding Metro Sul do Tejo.  
Source: INE, 2018

In terms of passenger-km, in 2016 there was an increase in the use of heavy (+5.9%)and light rail systems (+5.6%)and a decrease in road use, compared to the preceding year.

In 2017, Portuguese air carriers offered 20.3 million seats (+21.8%, -0.3%% in 2016), 20.1 million of them in regular flight operations (+23.1%). In the same year, 16.1 million passengers were transported (+27.4%, after -1.3% in 2016). In regular traffic, 15.9 million passengers (+28.2%) were transported.

Modal split of passenger transport, in Portugal and in the EU-28

Source: Eurostat, 2018

With regard to the modal split of passenger transport, in Portugal, there was a hegemony of passenger cars (individual transport), which are increasingly being used, achieving a share of 89.1%, in 2016, compared with 81.7% in 2000. Within the EU-28, the preference for passenger cars is similarly clear, albeit slightly less relevant (82.9% in 2016) than in Portugal, but the share of rail transport is more significant, corresponding to 7.7% in 2016, while in Portugal it was approximately 4.2%.

Regarding individual transport in Portugal, the available statistical sources do not allow the measurement of transport flows in private vehicles, so the results of the General Population Census, which provide information on the commuting movements of the working and student population (home-work or home-school trips).

According to the information obtained in the last census (2011), 61.6% of the home-work or home-school commutes involved the use of individual transport (considering both drivers and passengers), reflecting an increase of 15.9 percentage points (p.p.) compared with 2001. Walking and bus commutes were the most penalised ones, as in ten years they lost, respectively, 8.7 p.p. and 4.1 p.p., representing only 16.4% and 11.8% of the total commutes in 2011. It will only be possible to update this information after the upcoming census, scheduled for 2021.

The recently published final results of the Survey on Mobility in the Metropolitan Areas of Lisbon and Oporto (IMob 2017) carried out by Statistics Portugal between October and December 2017 confirmed the car as the main means of transport used by residents in metropolitan areas, more markedly in the Oporto Metropolitan Area (AMP) with 67.6% of trips, than in The Lisbon Metropolitan Area (AML), with 58.9%.

The car occupancy rate was 1.56 in AMP and 1.60 in AML.

Softer modes of mobility (pedestrian or bicycle) appear as the second most important form of locomotion in the total number of journeys, with a combined weight of 18.9% in the AMP (only 0.4% using a bicycle) and 23.5% % in the AML (only 0.5% using a bicycle).

Public and/or collective transport, as the main means of transport, accounted for 11.1% of the trips in the AMP and 15.8% in the AML.

Last update: 
Thursday, 31 January, 2019
More information at: 

Institute for Mobility and Transport – www.imt-ip.pt

Statistics Portugal – www.ine.pt