| Porto tramway network | |||||||||||||||||
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 A tram on route 22 in Porto | |||||||||||||||||
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| Locale | Porto, Portugal | ||||||||||||||||
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The tram system of Porto in Portugal is operated by the Sociedade de Transportes Colectivos do Porto (STCP) and currently has three regular tram routes with 30-minute headways. All are heritage tram routes, as they use vintage tramcars exclusively, and should not be confused with the modern Porto Metro light rail system.
In 1872 the Companhia Carril Americano do Porto à Foz e Mattosinhos opened the first mule tram line in Porto, connecting Rua dos Inglezes (nowadays Infante) with Foz (Castelo) and Matosinhos. [1] [2] [3] In the next year, a branch line from Massarelos to Cordoaria was opened. A second company, the Companhia Carris de Ferro do Porto (CCFP) (the Porto Tramways Company), was established in 1873, and it opened a line from Praça Carlos Alberto via Boavista to Foz (Cadouços) in 1874. More lines were added through the 1870s until the 1890s. In 1878 the CCFP line from Foz to Boavista was converted to steam traction. [1] [2] At Boavista was the change of traction between mules and steam engines. Four years later, the interurban line of the CCFP was extended from Foz (Cadouços) to Matosinhos. [1] [2] CCAPFM and CCFP merged on 13 January 1893, using the latter's name for the resulting company. [1] [2] [3] Electric traction was introduced in 1895. The last mule-drawn car was retired in 1904, and electrification was complete with the elimination of urban steam engines in 1914.
In 1946, the city purchased the tram system from CCFP and took over its operation, with a new municipal company, Serviço de Transportes Colectivos do Porto (STCP). By 1949, it reached its maximum length of 81 kilometers with 150 kilometers track length. The 1960s and the 1970s were marked by a continuous dismantling of tram tracks and a preference for cheaper bus transport. [1] The system shrank from 81 kilometers with 192 cars in 1958, to 38 kilometers with 127 cars in 1968, to 21 kilometers with 84 cars in 1978, to just 14 kilometers with 16 cars in 1996. The last remaining line (18) was the start of the current heritage tram system.
For many years, the system had more than 20 lines, but most were closed during the 1960s and 1970s. [3] : 45–47 By July 1978, only four routes remained: 1, 3, 18 and 19. Route 3 (Boavista – Pereiró) closed on 30 April 1984. For almost 10 more years, the three remaining routes continued in operation without any closures, as routes 1 (Infante – Matosinhos), 18 (Carmo – Castelo do Queijo – Boavista) and 19 (Boavista – Matosinhos). [3] : 46 The section from Castelo do Queijo to Matosinhos was closed on 11 September 1993 with the withdrawal of route 19 and of that section of route 1. The remainder of route 1, between Castelo do Queijo and Infante, was withdrawn on 10 September 1994. [3] : 46 On 11 June 1996, the final route, 18, was downgraded from a full-service tram line to a heritage service with reduced frequency, but operating seven days a week. Buses took over most of the service on the route at that time, but with trams continuing to operate some trips, as a heritage service. The service used only three trams, operating on a 35-minute headway. [4] Route 18's 4 km section along Avenida Boavista was later closed, but tram service was gradually re-introduced in the 2000s on other sections, in the form of additional heritage-tram services, lines 1 and 22, as well as the former Line T (the Porto Tram City Tour, which has since been discontinued).
Tram fares are paid with a customized ticket that can be bought on board of the vehicle, at the Museum or in some hotels. Consult the STCP web site for the current fare schedule. [5]
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Metro do Porto
Bus
Train
Connect with funicular
Connect with boats
Connect with helicopterLine 1 - line could in the future be extended from Foz to Castelo do Queijo or even Matosinhos and from Infante to the São Bento railway station via Rua Mouzinho da Silveira.
The Tram Museum is located in the old central power plant of the tram in Massarelos, next to an active STCP depot. The museum was inaugurated in May 1992. It preserves sixteen electric cars, five trailer cars and two maintenance cars. A parade of old cars is held annually between Infante and Passeio Alegre.
See the museum's web site for the current entry fee. A discount may be obtained with a valid tram ticket. [7]
Porto, also known as Oporto, is the second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropolitan area, with an estimated population of just 248,769 people in a municipality with only 41.42 km2 (16 sq mi). Porto's metropolitan area has around 1.8 million people (2023) in an area of 2,395 km2 (925 sq mi), making it the second-largest urban area in Portugal. It is recognized as a global city with a Gamma + rating from the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.
The Porto Metro is a light rail network in Porto, Portugal and a key part of the city's public transport system. Having a semi-metro alignment, it runs underground in central Porto and above ground into the city's suburbs while using low-floor tram vehicles. The first parts of the system have been in operation since 2002. It is a separate system to Porto's vintage trams.
STCP is the public transport company that runs the bus and tram service in Greater Porto, Portugal. Created in 1946, it took over the Porto tram system from its privately owned predecessor and continues to operate it today, but the formerly large tram system now has only three lines, which are heritage tram lines, and the STCP network is now mostly bus service. STCP does not operate the city's light rail system, Porto Metro, but owns 25% of it. It is a public company controlled by a board responsible to the central government and had about 1,500 employees in 2009. STCP operates 83 bus routes – of which 11 are late-night-only routes – and the bus service covers 539 km of routes.
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Rua da Junqueira, mostly known simply as Junqueira, is a traditional shopping street in Póvoa de Varzim in Portugal. The street, located in Póvoa de Varzim City Center, it is the main and the oldest shopping street of the city, with several boutiques, some opened for over 100 years, and small shopping centers. Historic architecture was preserved and it is also the most popular tourist area outside the beach in Póvoa de Varzim, attracting millions of visitors. It is a landmark for the city and neighboring areas.
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José Marques da Silva was a Portuguese architect and educator.
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Matosinhos is a city and a municipality in the district of Porto in Portugal. The municipality covers an area of approximately 62.42 square kilometres (24.10 sq mi) and had 172,557 inhabitants in 2021. It is bordered by the municipalities of Porto to the south, Maia to the east and Vila do Conde to the north and the Atlantic Ocean lies to its west. It is a part of the Porto metropolitan area, the second largest urban area in Portugal.
Centro Histórico is a neighborhood of the city of Porto Alegre, the state capital of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil.
The Lisbon tramway network is a system of trams that serves Lisbon, the capital city of Portugal. In operation since 1873, it presently comprises six lines. The system has a length of 31 km, and 63 trams in operation. The depot is located in Santo Amaro, in Alcântara.
Trams in Portugal have generally been traditional electric cars in large cities such as Lisbon, Porto and Sintra. Portuguese tram routes are typically, but not necessarily, tourist attractions.
The Walls of Dom Fernando, or Fernandine Walls, are medieval fortifications located in the civil parish of Cedofeita, Santo Ildefonso, Sé, Miragaia, São Nicolau e Vitória, in the municipality of Porto, Portuguese Porto.
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The Porto Tram Museum(Museu do Carro Eléctrico) is a museum operated by the Sociedade de Transportes Colectivos do Porto. It was inaugurated in 1992 and is installed in a former thermoelectric power station next to the River Douro in Massarelos, Porto, Portugal. It exhibits material related to the history of trams in Porto. The collection contains 16 electric cars, 5 trailers, and two maintenance vehicles as well as the former equipment of the power plant, which provided electricity for the tram lines.
David Moreira da Silva was a Portuguese architect of the Porto School of Fine Arts, where he completed the Special Course in Civic Architecture in 1929. He trained in Paris, at the Laloux-Lemaresquier atelier, and later received a scholarship from the National Board of Education and the Institute for High Culture.
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* Indicates defunct system. Italics denote planned or under construction systems. | ||
