“Presidential Train” – “brilliant” idea

Summing up the ceremony, Faro’s branch of the “Bloco Esquerda” (Left Bloc party) considered the “transporting of the Presidential committee and other VIP guests by special train from the Municipal Theatre to Largo de São Francisco “a brilliant idea”.

In a communiqué, their reason for the eulogy is that “this solution allowed for the quick and efficient movement of hundreds of people between two points in the city – without provoking traffic congestion”.

“We only don’t understand why this idea isn’t applied to the day-to-day life of Faro’s citizens. This occasion shows that, with current infrastructures and a railcar” the traffic between different points of Faro (and even Olhão) would be a lot less congested.

“We know there exist studies to link the airport with the Gambelas campus” of the University of the Algarve, both situated on the periphery of the city.

The Left Bloc is referring here to the study for a surface tube (“metro”) line. It’s been talked about a lot, and would certainly be the solution (if ever implemented) to relieving bottlenecks that block the entrance to the city every day during “rush hours”. A “metro” would also reduce citizen’s dependency on cars for their work and/ or studies – while tourism would also benefit from a direct connection from plane to train.

“We simply don’t understand why these (“metro”) plans haven’t been implemented,” the Left Bloc continue – particularly when one considers the welter of EC funds that have arrived in Portugal over the last seven years “destined for local development”. Perhaps, there were other priorities…

Instead of opting for a tube line, “the resolution for Faro’s mobility problems has been to offer public transport alternatives and cycle paths. But the implementation of the Presidential Train shows us that this is in fact an easy, useful solution”, they add.

And they’re right. It would also be even more useful for Portuguese, and Algarvians in particular, if the powers that be – distinguished politicians and heads of state – had travelled in the stinking, obsolete Third World railway cars from the last century that still “circulate” on the Algarve rail line every day – without air conditioning or even comfortable seats, and which are the only alternative option for many Algarvians in their daily routines.

But, let’s not kid ourselves…we’re already used to people who inhabit a different country, with imaginary trains.