€7m Lifeline to End Lift and Escalator Chaos in Lisbon Metro

Lisbon Metro allocates over €7 million to rescue its most troubled stations

Relentless faults in Lisbon’s lifts and escalators have turned the daily commute into a steep obstacle course. The metro operator has now ring-fenced more than seven million euros for a dedicated upkeep scheme at Baixa-Chiado and Aeroporto—two of the network’s busiest, deepest and most failure-prone stops.

Record number of elevators out of action

During a seven-day spell in early November 2025, only 50 of the system’s 121 elevators were available—an all-time low for the past two years, according to figures cited by Executive Digest. Complaints filed with the Mobility and Transport Authority (AMT) already surpassed 190 in the first half of 2024, while the consumer platform Portal da Queixa logged an 80 per cent jump in grievances year-on-year by mid-2025. Civic groups have repeatedly invited Infrastructure Minister Miguel Pinto Luz to navigate the broken machinery in person.

How the pilot contract is supposed to work

A public tender, opened in January 2025 and budgeted at €7 million, covers the full mechanical maintenance of 22 escalators and six lifts at the two key stations until 2030. The blueprint includes:

Technicians based on site around the clock;

a micro-warehouse of critical spare parts to shorten repair times;

fixed response deadlines backed by financial penalties if the contractor falls behind.

Although the metro has not yet disclosed the winning bidder, management says the "dedicated maintenance" model could be extended to other locations if the results are convincing.

Why Baixa-Chiado and the Airport matter most

Baixa-Chiado sits roughly 45 metres below street level, forcing passengers to climb four steep flights when the machinery fails—a serious burden for travellers with luggage, parents with prams or anyone with limited mobility. At Aeroporto, outages often coincide with flight-time peaks, undermining the metro’s role as the city’s main low-carbon link to the terminals.

Accessibility law leaves little wiggle room

EU Regulation 1300/2014 on rail accessibility and Portugal’s own Decree-Law 163/2006 oblige public transport operators to provide step-free access. Persistent non-compliance can lead to administrative fines issued by the National Rehabilitation Institute (INR) and to infringement procedures under wider passenger-rights rules (Regulation 1371/2007). Lisbon Metro has acknowledged the risk and is promising stricter oversight of subcontractors.

Wider modernisation still behind schedule

The €7 million pilot forms part of a broader plan to install brand-new lifts in ten additional stations by the end of 2025 and to overhaul equipment in 21 others before 2029. If every deadline is met, 52 of the network’s 56 stops should be fully accessible next year. Yet progress has been uneven: a mid-2024 audit recorded 22 elevators and 39 escalators stalled across the system, despite earlier pledges of improvement dating back to 2018.

What riders can do in the meantime

Until real-time status dashboards promised by the operator materialise, passengers who depend on lifts or escalators are advised to:

check the metro’s social-media feeds shortly before travelling;

ask station staff about the working condition of vertical-transport equipment;

request assistance in advance, a right protected under EU passenger-rights legislation.

Whether the latest cash injection will finally get the capital’s underground moving smoothly depends less on the amount spent and more on how quickly technicians, spare parts and accountability reach the platforms.