Where Did The Buses Go?

Several days ago we decided to visit one of the caves de vinho (wine cellars) across the river in Vila Nova de Guia. 

We have been looking forward to taking a tour and tasting some of the wine.  The majority of port wine is transported from vineyards east of Porto in the Douro River valley and aged in the caves here.  We are not big port drinkers, but when in Porto…

We don’t own a car, so we depend on public transportation.  When we first arrived in Porto we bought an Andante card that allows us to go anywhere in the metropolitan area on the buses,  the Metro (light rail) or some of the commuter rail lines.

A Modern Bus Fleet With A 150 Year History

The buses we have seen and ridden on have all been very modern and clean.  They are operated by STCP, Sociedade de Transportes Colectivos do Porto, SA, a state-owned company.  The company traces its history back to 1872 when a company was formed to operate horse-drawn tram cars.  Today, STCP operates a large fleet of buses as well as a half dozen heritage electric tram cars.

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The company has been actively upgrading its fleet, replacing older diesel and natural gas powered vehicles with newer compressed natural gas (CNG) buses that meet tighter European emissions standards.  They have also added a number of all-electric buses.  Their goal is to have 274 “green” buses (CNG and electric) in operation by October, 2021.  By the end of 2021, STCP will have 420 buses in operation, with 79% operating on CNG, 5% electric, and 16% diesel powered.

STCP has adopted “Intelligent Mobility” as its brand identity.  This reflects their forward thinking approach to reducing their environmental impact as well as the technological improvements, like onboard wi-fi and electronic signage, that they have implemented across their fleet.

We’re Off…Or Not?

We consulted Google Maps to plan the best route to take.  Getting to Vila Nova de Guia would take about 45 minutes and we could catch the bus around the corner from our apartment, in front of the Continente supermarket.  

While our experience is limited to the past six weeks, we have found that the buses generally run on time.  So we were surprised when the bus was two minutes late.  We were more surprised when it was five minutes late.  When it was eight or nine minutes late, we realized that we had not seen any buses go by in the 15 minutes or so we had been waiting.  

There were several other people waiting with us at the bus stop.  Then, as if on cue, they all left, leaving us more puzzled than before.  It was like they had gotten a message that we couldn’t hear.  (But with our limited ability to understand Portuguese, hearing it might not have done us much good anyway.)

After a few more minutes we decided there was no point waiting any longer.  Mary suggested we do our daily grocery shopping in the store behind us and then go back to the apartment.  As we walked home with our groceries, we passed another bus stop.  No one was waiting there.  We looked up the hill on our street and down the hill on the cross street.  No buses in sight.

Very strange.

What Happened?

Back at the apartment, I tried to find some news about what was going on, but didn’t have any luck.  We wondered if the bus drivers had suddenly gone on strike.  Whatever it was, we were glad we weren’t on the other side of the city when it happened.  But we quickly got involved in other activities and didn’t think about it again.  

The next morning I heard a bus passing our apartment building.  That got me curious.  I did a more thorough search and found a news story from earlier in the week.  According to the Jornal de Noticias: 

The Sociedade de Transportes Colectivos do Porto (STCP) reported on Tuesday that the services will suffer disruption on Thursday morning, between 8:30 and 14 pm, due to the holding of a General Plenary of Workers.

Translation by Bing

So it wasn’t a drivers’ strike, it was a meeting.

The news story went on to say that the meeting agenda was to include information about the financial state of STCP. The company lost over 12 million Euros last year because of a decline in ridership due to the pandemic.  Another topic to be covered was a review of worker salaries that was supposed to have been completed in March, but was now just getting started.

There were some other topics, but it seemed to me that those two, taken together, had the potential to upset the workforce.  Anyone who ever worked in a big company can imagine the script.  [Voice of executive:]  “So, in summary, we had a bad year last year.  We lost a lot of money.  And those pay raises we’re supposed to give out, well, they won’t be coming.”  

I would not want to be the person delivering that message.  

Now, to be fair, I don’t know what was actually said in the meeting.  I haven’t seen any news reports about it.  

A Common Perception

What’s been interesting today is hearing other people’s comments on the service outage.  Shortly before I found the news story, I posted a question in two different Facebook groups that serve expats in Portugal.  I asked, “Does anyone know why the buses weren’t working yesterday?”  About a dozen people, a mix of foreigners and Portuguese natives, responded.  A few mentioned the meeting, but most commenters said it was probably a strike.  

We took our dog to the vet this morning.  When we started telling her the story, she immediately interjected, “It must have been a strike.”  When we told her what we had learned, she laughed and suggested we should lower our expectations.

I don’t think we will lower them, but we’ll calibrate them with the knowledge that sometimes the bus just might not arrive.  And we’ll reserve judgement until we have more experience.

Oh, and I’ll also be more diligent about reading the local news!

We’ll get to the wine caves another day.  They’ve been making port here for over 500 years.  It’s a good bet they’ll keep doing it for at least a few more weeks.

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All our best / Todos os nossos melhores,

Mary and Mike

The Cook and The Writer

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P.S. – A Little Something Extra

Here’s an extra bonus for today. Mike has been fascinated by the street art we see around Porto. There’s plenty of graffiti, typical in any city. But we are sometimes stopped in our tracks by the murals we see painted at random places. The one below is adjacent to a side entrance to the Via Catarina shopping center in downtown Porto.

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