For quite a long time, people in Coimbra – the oldest university town in Portugal – had been considering how to deal with the situation:
A planned light rail network had to be abandoned for cost reasons, but a 39 km branch line of the national railway, which was to be incorporated into the light rail scheme, had already been decommissioned and partially dismantled. Another, more cost-effective means of transport had to be found in order to at least partially convince the population of the benefits of upgrading the existing public transport system.
And so the Metro Mondego became the Metrobus Mondego: Mainly single-track, an asphalted route for electric buses was built on the site of the broad-gauge branch line that was abandoned in 2011, based on the international BRT Bus Rapid Transit Standard. In the city itself, the Metrobus will in future run on a newly created, two-lane dedicated route on two axes through the centre to the long-distance railway station and the hospital in the north of the city. The electrically powered branch line of the railway to the centrally located city station was also abandoned in February 2025 and is to be integrated into the Metrobus network. This has led to considerable criticism, as it means that all passengers on regional trains that previously reached the centre directly will now have to change trains, both now and in the very long term.
After lengthy preparations and various construction delays, a free trial operation began on 29 August 2025 with the first of 35 battery-electric articulated buses delivered from China by the manufacturer Zhongtong. They are 18.75-metre-long articulated vehicles and have a 257 kWh battery pack on board. The buses are recharged via onboard pantographs at six charging points along the route and additionally at night in the depot. The manufacturer specifies a total capacity of 136 passengers, 54 of whom can be seated.
We reported in detail on the project here:
https://www.urban-transport-magazine.com/en/coimbra-the-electric-metrobus-is-coming/
The trial operation with passengers only covered the approximately 5 km long route from Largo Portagem close to the inner city centre to Vale das Flores – but by early December, more than 9,000 daily passengers were already being counted. Since 20 December, the e-buses have been running from L. Portagem along the entire former branch rail line to Serpins, a distance of approximately 39 km. To Vale das Flores, there is a 5-minute interval during rush hour on weekdays and otherwise a 7.5-minute interval, while on the entire route to Serpins, a bus comes every 30 to 60 minutes, depending on the time of day. The current route takes one hour to complete. The extensions to the long-distance railway station and the central hospital are still under construction – an exact date for completion cannot be given at this time.
There is no news about the trolleybus network in Coimbra, which has been out of service since March 2021, although large parts of the overhead line and some vehicles are still in place.
