Bikes on trains and buses in Portugal

megilleland

Anyone have any up to date information or experience of taking bikes on trains or buses in Portugal. Friend leaving this Thursday for Lisbon and has not found much information on web except that buses do not appear to carry bikes. Is this true?

andymiller

From the Portuguese Railways website (in English)

http://www.cp.pt/cp/displayPage.do?vgne ... a8c0RCRD#6

Can I take my bike on the trains?

Bikes are carried free of charge on the Lisbon, Oporto and Coimbra urban trains and the Regional and Interregional services.

There are, however, a few conditions that have to be taken into consideration::
CP is not responsible for any damage caused by or to the bikes .

The passenger is responsible for putting the bike on and off the train.

The bikes must  not disturb the other passengers or block the accesses.

The bikes cannot be riden in the stations, concourses, underpasses or bridges

If you are tavelling on a regional train, speak to the ticket inspector to see if the bike can be carried or not, given the fact that there are some limitations on the space available.

The inspector will also issue you with your ticket if the bike can, in fact, be taken.

The bikes can only be carried in the specially marked carriages on the Urban trains 

 Each passenger can only take one bike. [end of quote]

As far as buses are concerned, a quick Google suggests that most services between Spain and Portugal are run by ALSA and their policy, unless it gas changed recently, is that you can take bikes if they are in a bag. I suspect that other operators of intercity services will have the same policy.