We accomplish all of our trips via public transportation. It takes longer, but more often than not, it works just fine. Sometimes we opt for Uber. There are times when things don\u2019t go smoothly. Here are a few stories of our transportation problems and successes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ve been praising Uber as a good way to get around for short rides in Lisbon. A short Uber ride can cost less than both of us riding the train and it\u2019s quicker too. The train has had its share of strikes, in March and again in June. There\u2019s a PDF deeply buried in the CP app to find out the reduced strike schedule. Sometimes though, if we don\u2019t have any information, we just wait at the station and refrain from scanning our Viva Viagem card until we actually see a train.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because of the strikes, we have used Uber more lately. So, yesterday, we had a bad Uber experience. We took our usual short ride to Oeiras Parque, the mall near us. When the receipt came through after the ride, it was 19\u20ac instead of the expected 3,50\u20ac *. Wow, that was a shock. From the receipt, it looked like the driver continued on for 27 more kilometers to Almada on our bill. We decided to switch to Bolt for the ride home. Up til then, we had only used Bolt for riding scooters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
David made a complaint in the app. They knew something was different, because we got a notification that we ended the ride differently than planned. The app \u201cconcernedly\u201d asked if we were OK or if we needed any assistance. Within 48 hours, Uber refunded the overcharge. It all ended OK, except for the aggravation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
* using the European comma for the decimal point<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We had a mixed experience with Uber in Boston back in May. Always when we arrive at the airport the Uber prices are high. The arrival of planes triggers surge pricing, right? Well, we accepted an expensive ride of $89, which seemed surge-like already, but when the bill came through it was $191, not what we had accepted when we selected the ride. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
David spent some time trying to find out how to complain, which wasn\u2019t easy to discover. He managed to find it, and it worked \u2013 we were surprised and pleased to find they reversed the excessive, unaccepted charge. How many people get that ridiculous overcharge and just go with it? I\u2019ll bet Uber makes a lot of money that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Cascais train line runs from Cais do Sodr\u00e9 in the center of Lisboa, along on the shore to Cascais, about 26 km and a 40-minute ride. Our local station of Caxias is on this line and for most of the day there are trains every twenty minutes. We\u2019ve been surprised a couple of times when the train didn\u2019t stop at our station. Once, we went by our station, got off in Alges, rode back in the other direction, and it skipped Caxias again!! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
(Aside: It doesn\u2019t cost extra to switch directions. You just go across to the other track, without going out the exit gate.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, how do we figure out which train to ride?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ve found two options:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In our frustration on that back-and-forth-and-back ride, we studied the posted schedule and tried to understand it better. So it turns out the pivot point is Oeiras, 3 stops west of us. From Cascais, SRAP trains make every stop until Oeiras, then go express to Alges or maybe on to Cais do Sodr\u00e9. Then another train 2 minutes later will make every stop. So if we leave Cascais on an SRAP train, we better get off in Oeiras and wait for the next train. This pattern seems to be in the mornings and evenings. The afternoon trains are all \u201cTODAS\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The only thing is, once you\u2019re on the train, how do you know what it will do? There is an electronic sign in most train cars that displays the time and temperature and when you get close to a stop, the name of the stop. There are no other signs, except outside on the front of the train, and no information about what the next stop will be after the upcoming stop. So there\u2019s still a bit of guesswork if you don\u2019t get a look at the front of the train before you get on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lisbon city buses go almost everywhere and they have a pretty reliable schedule, subject to traffic, of course. The Metro has four lines, well connected with each other, and it goes to many parts of the city too. So when either a bus or the Metro will take us where we want to go, which is the better choice?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We generally go to Lisbon by train then either walk, take a bus, or take the Metro to our final destination. Here are <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Train to Metro <\/strong>When we get to Cais do Sodr\u00e9, we can switch, in the same station, to the Metro\u2019s Linha Verde (green line). From there, we can go one stop to connect with the Linha Azul (blue line). It\u2019s a few more stops to get the Linha Vermelha (red line). We can switch twice to get the Linha Amarela or get it at the far end of the Linha Verde. It is reliable, frequent and efficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Metro is a good way to get to an inland neighborhood like Avenidas Novas, where we go to the Corte Ingl\u00eas mall and the Gulbenkian concert hall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Train to bus <\/strong>Sometimes though, a bus may be a better choice. The metro is all underground, and a bus gives you a chance to see new areas of the city with all its activities. Google routes often recommend a bus. However, the connections Google thinks we\u2019ll make we often miss. After a miss, we have to hope there will be another bus soon. Usually there is, within 15 or 20 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bus suffering <\/strong>Last Friday, we decided to go to the fantastic Ocean\u00e1rio de Lisboa and take a bus from the Cais do Sodr\u00e9 train station. The 728 bus goes along the shore to Oriente station in the Parque de Na\u00e7\u00f5es area. But! The driver ended the ride at Santa Apolonia. We waited at least 30 minutes on a very hot day for another bus. Google said one was coming sooner, but it didn\u2019t. Buses for other routes came by and maybe we should have grabbed one of those, but we hadn\u2019t studied those routes yet. Eventually another 728 bus came, but we were pretty hot and frustrated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Bus success <\/strong>On another day, we had a great bus trip. We rode the train to Alg\u00e9s and got a bus to the Amoreiras centro commercial (shopping mall). The bus route started on \u201cembassy row\u201d, an elegant avenue in Restelo. Then the bus went through Monsanto Park, a big forest within the city limits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Leaving the park, we had a great view of the immensely tall old aqueduct that crosses the valley between Monsanto and Amoreiras. The bus itself was on a high road crossing the valley too. The valley is a mega-transportation conduit with highways heading north and south and a big train stations at Campolide and Alc\u00e2ntara. We thought the mall was a good shopping place. The building itself, a modern take on art deco, is elegant. There\u2019s more to Amoreiras than the mall and office buildings nearby, so we\u2019ll have to visit again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We accomplish all of our trips via public transportation. It takes longer, but more often than not, it works just fine. Sometimes we opt for Uber. There are times when things don\u2019t go smoothly. Here … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-portugal-move-2023","latest_post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transitorythoughts.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transitorythoughts.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transitorythoughts.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transitorythoughts.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transitorythoughts.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1582"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.transitorythoughts.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1669,"href":"https:\/\/www.transitorythoughts.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1582\/revisions\/1669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transitorythoughts.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transitorythoughts.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transitorythoughts.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transitorythoughts.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}