Porto : Responsible authority

Area Metropolitana do Porto
Palácio dos Correios – Rua do Estêvão, 21
4000-200 Porto
Portugal

www.amp.pt

Are you a registered member of EMTA? Log-in to access contact details.

porto.png

Área Metropolitana do Porto
Comissão Executiva Metropolitana
Avenida dos Aliados, 236-2º  
4000-065 Porto
PORTUGAL

EMTA delegate : Mrs Sara Lobao

AMP was created in 1991 and is a union of metropolitan municipalities.

The Metropolitan Area of Porto is composed by three bodies:

  • Metropolitan Council – it’s a deliberative body constituted by the presidents of the 17 municipal councils of the municipalities that make up the AMP, under the presidency of Emídio Sousa, also the mayor of Santa Maria da Feira.
  • Executive Committee – it’s an executive body constituted by the First Secretary and four Metropolitan Secretaries. The First Secretary is Lino Ferreira and the others members are Avelino Oliveira, Sara Lobão, Luis Neves and António Samagaio.
  • Strategic Development Council – It’s a consultative body intended to support the decision-making process of the other organs of the metropolitan area. This body is constituted by representatives of the institutions, entities and organizations with relevance and intervention in the field of metropolitan interests.

AMP is an institutional structure with the mission of promoting the planning and management of the economic, social and environmental development strategy of the territory. AMP has a wide range of functionalities that focus mainly on the work of a team of political representatives and qualified technicians, who seek to articulate and promote common projects to the municipalities which belong to this metropolitan area.

The entity also has functions of representation of the municipalities and management in different structures and entities of metropolitan importance, as is the case of public transport companies, regulators, energy agencies, cultural and social institutions and tourism.


Responsability of the PTA

Law 52/2015 of 9 June, approved the Legal Regime of the Public Passenger Transport Services, which caused the extinction of the Metropolitan Authority of Porto Transports (AMTP), partially delegating their functions and powers in the Metropolitan Area of Porto (AMP) from September 2015.

AMP thus became the competent Transport Authority as to public service intercity passenger transport, meaning the bus lines that intersect more than one municipality and that operate entirely or mainly in the metropolitan area of Porto, and therefore responsible for its planning.

However, with regard to municipal lines (to, from and with an integral path in one municipality) the transport authority is the municipality and therefore responsible for the transport planning within the territory.

And with regard to public operators (Metro do Porto, STCP (bus that operate in 5 municipalities of Porto region) and CP (train)) power remained in the state sphere.
Faced with an institutional disarticulation scenario, emerged in the AMP the idea that a shared coordination of the needs and goals of the municipalities of the metropolitan area of Porto would be necessary. To AMP was important to define a shared approach involving the main actors, which features local authorities and operators.

In this sense, AMP promoted a new management model. This new model had a complex structure of distribution of powers between the 19 entities (AMP + 17 municipalities + central state), presenting a model of shared management that is held in the delegation of mutual responsibilities between municipalities and AMP.

This new model of management of public transport, built in aggregation with the municipalities, included in the legal instrument – the inter-administrative contract of delegation of powers.

This tool allows transforming the 17 local authorities plus the metropolitan authority in one, what will result in a significant gain in efficiency, an optimization of human, technological and financial resources, facilitating the standardization of procedures and better coordination with the transport operators.

This tool also enables significant efficiency gains to the design level of networks and promotion of inter-modality, while optimizing the cost calculation, according to the type of needs and available resources.

This agreement also is responsible for the creation of the Technical Management Unit (TMU). These TMU enables the State to delegate in the inter-municipal authorities some of his powers related to the planning and management of public transport. One example is the case of the TMU of the municipalities served by the STCP network, state-regulated bus operator, in which via an inter-administrative contract, delegate the regulatory powers, supervision and inspection careers of STCP in TMU_STCP, coordinated by the municipality of Porto and the AMP and include representatives of the municipalities of Vila Nova de Gaia, Matosinhos, Maia, Gondomar and Valongo (already approved by memorandum of understanding signed on 27 June 2016 by the Portuguese Prime Minister).

To fulfil its responsibilities, Porto Metropolitan Area has the following competences as a transport authority:

  • Organization, planning, development and coordination of networks and lines of public passenger transport services as well as the equipment and infrastructure dedicated to it;
  • Exploration, through its own means and or assignment to public service operators, of the public passenger transport service;
  • Purpose of public service obligations;
  • Investment in networks, equipment and infrastructure dedicated to the public service of the passenger transport, subject to the investment to be made by public service operators;
  • Financing of passenger public service and networks, equipment and infrastructure dedicated to this, and financing of public service obligations and compensation for providing subsidized social tariff determined by the transport authority;
  • Determination and approval of tariff schemes in force in the public service of passengers transport;
  • Receiving counterparts at right to operate passenger transport public service;
  • Supervision and monitoring of the operation of public passenger transport service;
  • Surveys on mobility within the respective geographical area;
  • Promoting the adoption of transport planning instruments in the respective geographical area; and
  • Divulgation of passenger public transport service.