Cais do Sodré metro station shuts from 8 to 26 August, with the Green Line stopping at Baixa-Chiado
Lisbon's Cais do Sodré metro station closes between 8 and 26 August for works on the future Circular line. The Green Line will run Telheiras to Baixa-Chiado only. Alternatives and reopening date.
If Cais do Sodré is your metro stop, you have 19 awkward days coming. The station closes to the public from 8 to 26 August and only reopens on the 27th, for railway signalling work tied to Lisbon’s future Circular line.
Through that window the Green Line runs only between Telheiras and Baixa-Chiado, in both directions. Which means no direct metro ride to the Cais do Sodré ferry terminal or the Cascais train line, in precisely the month when half of Lisbon is catching boats and beach trains.
How do you reach Cais do Sodré without the metro in August?
The nearest metro alternative is Terreiro do Paço on the Blue Line, a short walk along the river away. Beyond that, Carris covers the gap from several directions: the 760 and the night 208 from Martim Moniz; the 728, 735, 781 and 782 from Praça do Comércio and Terreiro do Paço, plus the 206 and 210 in the small hours; trams 15E and 25E and bus 774 from Praça da Figueira; the 732, night 736 and early-hours 207 from Rossio; and the 758 from Chiado.
Budget a few extra minutes and leave earlier than usual, especially at rush hour and at weekends, when Cais do Sodré is the compulsory crossing point for anyone heading to the south-bank beaches.
Why are these works necessary?
Because the Circular line is nearly here. It enters service in the first quarter of 2027, linking Rato to Cais do Sodré, adding more than two kilometres of track and two new stations, Estrela and Santos. In practice it joins the existing Yellow and Green lines into a ring through the centre of the city.
This month’s work is signalling, making sure the new operating configuration is compatible with the network already running — the invisible half of any expansion, and the half that always means closing something. The end goal is a metro trip with no line changes between the ferry and rail interchange at Cais do Sodré and the central spine of the city.
Lisbon’s metro calendar is crowded: alongside the Circular, work continues on extending the Red Line from São Sebastião to Alcântara, building the new Violet Line between Loures and Odivelas, and rolling out CBTC signalling. Details of each project sit on Metropolitano de Lisboa’s projects portal, which is the place to check dates before counting on a station being open.
August in Lisbon already gives you reasons to move from shade to shade. Walking the last kilometre is simply one more.
Image: Mike Steele / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
