The mayor, who was speaking at the conference “The challenges of mobility in the Metropolitan Area”, organized by the Mobility and Transport Authority (AMT), also said that 40,000 residents in Lisbon have already signed up for free passes, 30,000 of which people over 65 years and 10,000 students.

Carlos Moedas highlighted that one of the problems detected was precisely that of young people who come to Lisbon to study, as he came from Beja, and who are not entitled to free public transport because they do not want to change their address, “especially those who come from the islands, that if they change their home address, they change the household”.

“I would like to tell young people that I am working to solve this problem, that we are working with the Metropolitan Area [of Lisbon] so that these young people who come from outside can also have this benefit”, he said.

The statements by the Mayor of Lisbon follow an open letter from students at the University of Lisbon, in which they defended the elimination of the obligation to be tax domiciled in the capital to benefit from free public transport, in order to “include all students” enrolled in higher education institutions in the city.