Transport fares in Portugal will be payable by bank card

Public transport journeys in the Lisbon and Porto metropolitan areas will soon be payable via contactless bank cards, similar to the system already in place on the Lisbon Metro, the Government has announced.

By TPN/Lusa, in News · 30 Sep 2026, 16:33 · 0 Comments

In a statement released today, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing (MIH) revealed that public operators and passenger transport managers in the Lisbon and Porto metropolitan areas have signed a cooperation agreement to develop a national ticketing project.

In the initial phase, according to the ministry responsible for transport, the focus is on “developing a platform to accept contactless bank cards as a direct payment method at public transport validators, thereby eliminating the need for passengers to purchase tickets in advance from machines or service counters if they so choose.”

The MIH also noted that the collaboration between participating entities, facilitated by Mobi.E aims to create a technological foundation that fosters ticketing interoperability and enables the development of new fare solutions.

By leveraging the combined scale of transport operators, the cooperation aims to “help reduce commissions and other payment-related costs, as well as establish a common basis for rolling out modern ticketing and access technologies across the entire country.”

The agreement was signed during a meeting of companies under the Mobility portfolio by the CEOs of six entities: CP - Comboios de Portugal, Metropolitano de Lisboa, Metro do Porto, Metro Mondego, TTSL/Soflusa, and Mobi.E (which has taken on the role of promoting ticketing system interoperability at the national level).

In addition to the six companies, the agreement was also signed by the heads of Transportes Metropolitanos de Lisboa (TML) and Transportes Metropolitanos do Porto (TMP).

According to the government statement, the agreement represents a “joint effort” among transport operators and entities aimed at “promoting the integration of transport modes across several dimensions: operational, institutional, ticketing, and real-time information dissemination.”

For the Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing (MIH), this coordination, with concrete solutions, aims to improve the travel experience and attract more passengers to public transport, reduce car traffic, and support environmental sustainability targets.

“Our priority is to win over more and more people to public transport. To achieve this goal, we need to make journeys simpler, faster, more comfortable, and more predictable,” stated Miguel Pinto Luz, the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, as quoted in the statement.