Rui Moreira refuses to stop the tram because of the metro works and attacks TVDE | Harbor

“We won’t accept it.” Rui Moreira once again repeated what he had already said to Metro do Porto and which he made known through the media: “whatever the consequence”, the Porto City Council will not license the construction work on the Rubi line if it is interrupting the tram on Rua do Ouro.

At a public meeting of the executive, in response to doubts raised by councilor Mariana Ferreira Macedo, from the PSD, the mayor said that, around a week ago, Metro maintained the desire to stop the tram – and he maintained the desire not to let it go to do. “As long as I’m mayor I won’t allow it.”

The interruption of the line is planned in the Rubi line project, for the construction of one of the pillars of the new bridge over the Douro. Financed by the PRR, this project must be completed by the end of 2026, otherwise the funds will be lost.

In the tone of disagreement that has marked relations with Metro do Porto, Rui Moreira guaranteed that in relation to the tram, the company will even have to look for another solution. “If this is how they did the project, correct it”, he advised, saying that “the city cannot handle” more interference in mobility.

The committee to monitor the metro works, created by the Municipal Assembly in January, meets for the first time this Monday. And Moreira left a request: “I hope the commission checks that this is not an annoyance by the mayor.”

Rui Moreira also pointed out the delays of “more than two years” in the work on Rua Mouzinho da Silveira and said he does not believe that the completion deadline, at the end of 2026, will be met: “We have no objective forecast of the end of the works.” As for the metrobus, he joked: “The vehicles will arrive in the city and there won’t be a road yet.”

“Highly harmful”

The debate on mobility in the city would return later in the public meeting, regarding a proposal to delegate parking inspection powers to STCP. The councilor of the Bloco de Esquerda, Pedro Figueiredo, wanted to emphasize that the “traffic chaos” in the city is not the exclusive fault of the metro works. And besides that and abusive parking, there is an acronym that needs to be called into discussion: TVDE. “There is an excessive number of vehicles”, he considered.

Rui Moreira signed. “The TVDE situation is highly harmful”, he assessed, lamenting the municipality’s tied hands in this matter and asking the new Government to consider this matter legally. “We have no way of controlling the number of cars, where they come from and where they go. Unlike taxis, which have postures, they make people’s lives hell.”

Ilda Figueiredo, from the CDU, recalled a recommendation from her party, approved in the Municipal Assembly, for the legislation on TVDE to be revised. And Cristina Pimentel, administrator of STCP, explained the proposal that would be voted on (and approved, with abstentions from CDU and BE): from now on, STCP inspectors will be accredited to issue fines in case of improper parking on BUS corridors or at stops by buses. “The action will be complementary to the police action.”