One of Lisbon’s best-known tourist icons became the scene of a tragic accident this Wednesday. The funicular departing from the top of Calçada da Glória derailed, gained speed, and crashed with great violence into a building.

According to the Prime Minister [Luís Montenegro, leader of the centre-right PSD party, Portugal’s Prime Minister since April 2024], who corrected information released hours earlier by Lisbon’s Civil Protection on Thursday afternoon, there were 16 deaths and 21 injured people, five of whom were seriously injured and hospitalised in various Lisbon hospitals.

The Judicial Police [3] went to the scene to conduct forensic examinations and several inquiries have already been announced. The Government decreed a day of national mourning, the Mayor of Lisbon [4] decreed three days of municipal mourning, and the President of the Republic [5] cancelled the Book Festival in Belém [6], which was due to begin this Thursday.

Union Demands Investigation into Outsourced Maintenance

In statements to the Lusa news agency [7], Manuel Leal, a trade union leader from Fectrans and STRUP [8], argued that a “rigorous inquiry into the root causes of this accident” should be carried out, “particularly because workers have long been reporting concerns about the need for maintenance of these funiculars to return to the responsibility of Carris workers rather than being handed over to external companies, as is the specific case of the Glória funicular”.

“The workers themselves have been reporting these differences between the maintenance that was carried out by Carris workers a few years ago and the maintenance that is done today, particularly with successive complaints from workers who work there regarding the tension level of the support cables of these funiculars,” the trade unionist continued.

The president of Carris, Pedro de Brito Bogas, spoke to the media to confirm that maintenance is outsourced to an external company [Main - MNTC Serviços Técnicos de Engenharia, Lda], but guaranteed that it was carried out “scrupulously”.

Political Reactions

On social media, Bloco de Esquerda [9] coordinator Mariana Mortágua [10], who since Sunday has been participating in the Global Sumud Flotilla humanitarian mission [11] towards the Gaza Strip, said she received “with consternation” the news of the tragedy in Lisbon.

“There will be time to clarify everything that needs to be clarified. For now, I offer my condolences to the families of the victims and wish a speedy recovery to the injured,” said Mariana Mortágua.

Alexandra Leitão [12], who heads the “Viver Lisboa” [13] coalition list, which brings together PS [14], Livre [15], Bloco [16] and PAN [17], also told journalists that “there will be time to learn lessons from what happened and at this moment I want to reiterate my consternation over such a serious accident in the city of Lisbon”.

Article updated at 14:30 on 4 September with statements from the Prime Minister correcting information provided hours earlier by Lisbon’s Civil Protection about the number of deaths and injuries from the accident.

Esquerda