Coimbra asks the Portuguese government for subsidized ‘public diesel’

The rising fuel costs are already putting some local authorities on edge

The current war in Ukraine has started to cause an energy crisis due to the rise in fuel prices. Transition to sustainable mobility is still an unfolding process, and fossil fuels continue to play an important role in the provision of transport services.

This has caused local authorities, such as these of the Portuguese city of Coimbra to step forward with appeals for subsidized “public diesel” so that the municipal public transport services can continue to be provided without shocks and interruptions.

“The (national) government has to go further. For this reason, we propose the creation, as soon as possible, of so-called 'public diesel', for public transport, and of 'social diesel', to face the huge increase in fuel costs for public transport, IPSS [private social solidarity institutions] and firefighters,” declared the mayor of Coimbra, José Manuel Silva, during the period before the Monday local executive meeting.

Needed in order to keep public transit attractive to residents

According to the mayor, the increase in energy costs, “from a first analysis”, will be six million euros for the Coimbra City Council and for the SMTUC (the municipal public transit operator). The mayor stressed that in order to improve and expand the SMTUC “reducing fuel prices is absolutely vital”.

For José Manuel Silva, given the increase in fuel costs and a climate crisis, “this is also the time” to urge “people to travel more by public transport, with a double beneficial effect”.

The Coimbra Councilor responsible for transport, Ana Bastos, also highlighted the “serious budgetary problems” of the SMTUC in view of their dependence on fossil fuels and considered that the increase in costs will already exceed two million euros in urban transport, but that could “easily reach six million if this price escalation continues”.

The councillor, who is also chairwoman of the Board of Directors of the SMTUC, stressed that the problem is even more serious when the levels of demand for public transport are “about half of those recorded in 2019”.