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 25.71% of the total greenhouse gas emissions (without the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry sector), in 2018, 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-km (pkm - unit representing the transport of one passenger, over one kilometre) transported in public transport services, by 2020.
  • The National Energy and Climate Plan for 2030 (PNEC 2030), drawn up following the EU Regulation 2018/1999, defines, among others, the objectives of incorporating and valuing environmental and low carbon performance criteria in the process of contracting concessions for passenger public transport services and to strengthen the passenger rail transport and the fleet of passenger ships.
  • Decree-Law No. 86/2021, which transposes Directive (EU) 2019/1161 (which in turn amends Directive 2009/33/EC), establishes the legal regime for the promotion of clean road transport vehicles in favour of low-emission mobility, defining that contracts for the purchase and sale, rental, among others, of road vehicles with reduced or zero carbon emissions, signed by public entities, must take into account the ecological criteria defined in the scope the National Strategy for Ecological Public Procurement; the decree-law promotes the decarbonisation of the transport sector, through the acquisition of vehicles with reduced or zero emissions and the encouragement of the introduction of clean energy, and promotes patterns of active, shared, flexible, connected and sustainable mobility.
Progress analysis:

Number of passengers by public transport mode

Notas: (1) 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. (2) 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). (a) Mainland and third parties cars only; transport carried out by national operators. (b) In maritime and air transport, in the national transport component, and for the purposes of better comparability between modes, only boarding movements (excluding arrivals and transits) were considered. (c) Does not include cruise ships; does not include the port of Lisbon.
Source: INE, 2021

According to data from the Transport and Communications Statistics, in 2020 passenger transport suffered sharp reductions, mainly due to restrictions on mobility imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The road continued to be the most used mode of transport on the mainland, having been used by 328.1 million passengers, which corresponds to a reduction of 42% compared to the previous year (in 2018 there was an increase of 5.5% and in 2019 of 4.2%). 243.2 million passengers travelled in the rail mode, of which 102.2 million in urban/suburban trains (41.7% less than in 2019) and 140.9 million in the three subway systems in Lisbon, Porto and Sul do Tejo (47.8% less than in 2019). 13.1 million passengers were transported through rivers, which corresponds to a decrease of 42.8% compared to 2019.

Air traffic (not shown in the graph) suffered a 69.9% reduction in passengers handled at national airports, which interrupted the growth seen in recent years (+7.3% in 2019 and +7.1% in 2018).

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 new calculation method and excluding Metro Sul do Tejo. (2) 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). (a) Mainland and third parties cars only.
Source: INE, 2021

In terms of passengers-km, and also due to the restrictions imposed by the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, in 2020 there was a strong reduction, compared to the previous year, in all modes of transport: -48.6% in the use of the train, -48.5% for underground use and -50.4% for road use.

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

Source: Eurostat, 2021

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 88.3%, in 2019, compared with 81.7% in 2000. Within the EU-28, the preference for passenger cars is similarly clear, albeit slightly less relevant (83.4% in 2019) than in Portugal, but the share of rail transport is more significant, corresponding to 8.1% in 2019, while in Portugal it was approximately 4.6%.

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. This information can only be updated when the results of the censuses which took place in early 2021 are released.

The 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: 
Wednesday, 10 November, 2021
More information at: 

Institute for Mobility and Transport – https://www.imt-ip.pt/
Statistics Portugal – https://www.ine.pt/
Eurostat - https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database