The operations end the free trial after 51 days, with the second phase to Anémona still to come.

Passengers on the hydrogen-powered bus will now have to validate their transport ticket to make the approximately 12-minute journey, which is fully segregated on Avenida da Boavista (from Casa da Música to the Colégio do Rosário area), but shared with cars on Avenida Marechal Gomes da Costa.

The trial period for the Metrobus, a service of Metro do Porto operated by Sociedade de Transportes Coletivos do Porto (STCP), was initially planned for one month, but on 30 March its extension until 19 April was announced, with commercial service beginning on 20 April.

About a year and a half after the completion of the works between Casa da Música and Império, the Porto metrobus began its free public trial phase on 28 February, operating between 6 am and 10 pm, with frequencies of 10 minutes during peak hours and 15 minutes at other times, frequencies also planned for the commercial service, which are times lower than those predicted when the project was announced in 2021.

The segregated lane on Avenida da Boavista was used by soft mobility modes such as bicycles and scooters, which continued to happen during the trial period, even after the Porto City Council implemented a 30 km/h speed limit on the right lane of Avenida da Boavista with signage and painting, without physical protection for soft modes.

Hydrogen-powered bus

The metrobus is a hydrogen-powered bus that runs on Avenida Marechal Gomes da Costa and Avenida Boavista, with stops at the Guerra Junqueiro, Bessa, Pinheiro Manso, Serralves and João de Barros stations.

For now, the extension of the service to Anémona, with stops in Antunes Guimarães, Garcia de Orta, Nevogilde, and Castelo do Queijo, which is under construction, is excluded.

The Porto metrobus registers an average of six thousand trips per day, announced the Secretary of State for Mobility, Cristina Pinto Dias, on 26 March, during the IV Congress of Cities and Towns that Walk, in Porto, arguing that it is "absolutely essential" to ensure measures that allow for reduced travel times in public transport compared to individual transport.

Change in urban mobility

According to the government official, "the BRT [Bus Rapid Transit, commonly known as metrobus] has effectively made a structural change in urban and metropolitan mobility," noting, however, that it is "absolutely essential" to ensure that it is possible to have public transport with travel times that are competitive with individual transport.

For Cristina Pinto Dias, politicians should work on "this dimension and this component, so that people feel that it makes a difference to travel by public transport, that they make the trip faster, therefore, in less time."

"We are talking about €76 million that came out of taxpayers' pockets. And, therefore, it is important to maximize this asset that is currently available for mobility, in this case, the mobility of the city of Porto," she stressed.

Millions of passengers

According to the demand study carried out, the potential for attracting passengers from the Império-Boavista line is 7.4 million in 2027, the "cruising year of operation".

The set of vehicles and the energy production system cost 29.5 million euros, and the construction work on the land cost approximately 76 million euros.

Metro do Porto and STCP assure that, in coordination with the Porto City Council and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing, "they have been cooperating intensively in improving all systems associated with the metrobus."

"Based on surveys conducted with customers (more than three thousand face-to-face interviews at stations and vehicles), the service satisfaction rate is 8.7 (out of 10). In terms of operational performance, the average travel time between Casa da Música - Império is 12 and a half minutes," according to the two companies.