In 1975, owing to profound political changes in Portugal, the government decreed the nationalization and merger of five companies operating the ferry routes on the River Tagus, connecting Lisbon to several areas on the south bank. Transtejo was founded in the same year in response to a need to restructure and coordinate the ferry operators’ activity on the River Tagus, in order to guarantee its regular functioning.

In 2001, Transtejo acquired the entire capital stock of Soflusa, another ferry company, operating the Barreiro – Lisbon – Barreiro route. In the wake of that move, the Transtejo Group now operates all waterborne connections in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (AML).

Half of the travel taking place in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area is inter-town. Within this context, Lisbon is the main destination for passengers during the morning rush hour and, consequently, their main departure point during the afternoon one.

The morning rush hour (between 6.30am and 9am) is more concentrated, with the evening rush hour (between 5pm and 8pm) being more spread out.

In 2004, the Group made more than 550 crossings per day.

The Transtejo Group serves a population of 700,000 inhabitants, with close on 8% of them using our services everyday.

Of a total of 3,610 km traversed both ways, the Transtejo Group makes 568 daily river crossings, transporting around 100,000 passengers.

The Transtejo Group has 12 Terminals:

• 6 on the South Bank: Montijo, Barreiro, Seixal, Cacilhas, Porto Brandão and Trafaria.
• 6 on the North Bank: Parque das Nações, Terreiro do Paço (2), Cais do Sodré (2) and Belém.

All terminals have been undergoing modernization works, with major attention being paid to the needs of handicapped passengers with reduced mobility.

Montijo’s terminal (Seixalinho terminal), inaugurated in December 2002, enables an integrated transportation network on the south bank of the Tagus, thus allowing an interchange from individual to public transportation. Passengers have at their disposal 2,000 parking spaces for their vehicles.

The recently-inaugurated Cais do Sodré interface was constructed to improve the service for passengers by reducing the distance between the various types of transportation: train, metro, bus and taxi. Daily, this interface is used by some 220,000 passengers.

The Terreiro do Paço interface in downtown Lisbon is still under construction, and will eventually integrate bus, metro and waterborne transportation.

Between April 1 and October 31, Transtejo operates daily cruises on the River Tagus. Lasting two and half hours, they depart once a day, at 3pm, from Terreiro do Paço, calling at Parque das Nações and Belém, and returning once again to the departure point. The route the cruise takes is an ideal and unrivaled way of seeing many of those sites that are so characteristic of Lisbon and its heritage.

Tanstejo has completely refurbished traditional ferryboats (called cacilheiros), which can carry up to 200 people. These are equipped with two saloons, one of which is open-deck.

Embarking at Terreiro do Paço, passengers are taken upriver to Parque das Nações, stopping at the Porta do Tejo pier, and then go back downriver to the historic zone of Belém, returning to Terreiro do Paço to disembark. There is also a bar service, and tourist information can be obtained from onboard attendant