Montijo finally has a long-distance coach stop of its own. The fare to Coimbra starts at €4.49
The route began running on 13 August and links Montijo to Torres Vedras, São Martinho do Porto, Nazaré, Marinha Grande and Coimbra. Four departures a day, two each way, from a new stop at Portas da Cidade beside the A33 and A12.
If you live in Montijo and wanted a long-distance coach, the drill until this week was tedious and familiar. Cross the Tagus, get to Gare do Oriente, start the journey there. That changed on 13 August, when FlixBus began running in the municipality and put its new stop at Portas da Cidade, on Avenida Pedro Nunes, behind the Decathlon and next to a Carris Metropolitana stop.
The route runs up the south bank and then along the Oeste coast. From Montijo it calls at Torres Vedras, São Martinho do Porto, Nazaré and Marinha Grande before finishing in Coimbra. There are four departures a day, two in each direction: 11.05am and 4.45pm out of Montijo, 10.55am and 5.35pm out of Coimbra. Fares start at €4.49 for Montijo to Coimbra and for Montijo to Nazaré, sold through the app, the operator site, Pagaqui outlets and partner travel agents.
Beaches without a car, and a back door to the north
The beach part is the obvious one. São Martinho do Porto and Nazaré are now a single direct coach away, and towns across the Oeste get links to each other that previously meant routing through Lisbon.
The quieter gain is Coimbra as a hub. One change there opens the network to Aveiro, Porto and Braga, which means somebody in Montijo can reach the north without setting foot in the capital. In a metropolitan area where almost every line bends towards Lisbon, that is worth more than it sounds.
The operator points to Montijo’s population growth, which it puts at around 20% in recent years, as the reason for moving in. The stop itself was agreed with the town hall and sits where the A33 and A12 meet the town.
Read it alongside the rest of the south bank’s transport picture, which stays under construction for years yet: there are two new Tagus crossings planned inside a decade, one of them landing in Barreiro. On rail, the big bet is elsewhere, with two bidders still in the race to sell CP its 300 km/h trains. Until any of that arrives, an 11.05 coach solves more than you would think.
By Beatriz Mota
Image: Anthony Levrot / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
