The City Council plans to invest 54 million euros in the next eight years to ensure an efficient public road transport service for passengers in the county, through a new inter-municipal network designed between the counties of Vila Nova de Famalicão, Trofa and Santo Tirso, as part of the «Mobi.Ave» project. This is the largest public investment ever made in the county of Famalicão, regarding public road transport.
The proposal for this investment in the new network of public road transport was approved at the meeting of the City Council on Thursday, September 2, with an overall investment of 54,267,861 euros, plus VAT at the legal rate in force, between 2022 and 2029.
Altogether, the three municipalities will invest around 80 million euros, with Famalicão being responsible for the greatest effort, since its territory covers two thirds of this network. For the Mayor, Paulo Cunha, this decision will materialise "an unquestionable improvement in the use, coverage and efficiency of public road transport in Famalicão, allowing a significant increase in the number of kilometres travelled by buses in Famalicão, from 1,5 million kms/year to about 3,5 million kms/year".
Paulo Cunha highlights that “the new network will be adjusted to the needs of the peoples and companies”, with the objective of “serving the community and to stimulate the use of public transport”.
It should be noted that, in 2017, the City Council of Famalicão signed a collaboration protocol with the City Councils of Trofa and Santo Tirso, to carry out a planning study on the mobility of passengers in the territorial area of the three counties, which culminated in the creation, in 2019, of the Association of Municipalities «Mobi.Ave», with a view to managing a transport network between the three municipalities, which will also materialise in this new network of public road transport.
"Besides wanting a good road circulation within the county, we also want the connections to the neighbouring counties to be made in an efficient way, with schedules and flows that are the right ones", highlights the Mayor.
It is recalled that the City Council of Famalicão is the transport authority for the public road passenger transport service in the municipality since 2015, after the amendment of the Legal Regime of the Public Passenger Transport Service by law no. 52/2015, of 9 June.