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-
- Soflusa
Passenger Ferries
- Transtejo
e a Soflusa
-
-
- This page shows the passenger
ferries of Soflusa both conventional
ferries and the
replacement fast
catamaran ferries.
-
- Lisbon has a superb location
on the River Tagus, and there remains an intensive network of
ferry services across the river, despite the imposing Ponte
25 de Abril bridge which links the two sides and carries
both rail and road traffic. Even a car ferry service has survived
the arrival of the bridge, unusual in such circumstances, and
the ferries on this route are of an extremely distinctive design.
The car ferry now runs between Belem and Cacilhas with the two
remaining ferries Alentejense and Eborense, replacing the two routes Belem-Porto
Brandao and Cais de Sodré-Cacilhas, for which Monte
Pragal and
Sesimbrense had been retained. These have
been withdrawn since 2005.
-
- Since 1975, the Lisbon
ferries have been operated by two companies, Transtejo and Soflusa
(originally Portuguese Railways (CP)) These are now combined
as Transtejo
e a Soflusa. Transtejo
(Transportes Tejo) operated from three ferry terminals on the
north bank of the Tagus:- Belem, Cais de Sodré and Cais
da Alfandega; operating routes to seven terminals on the south
banks with a fleet of around 30 ferries. Transtejo had received
a mixed fleet of ferries from various companies when nationalized
in 1975. In 1980 the 300grt Cacilhense was delivered, the name ship of
a new class of eight ferries. These are fully enclosed vessels
and not particularly pleasant to travel on. They were followed
in 1982 by the four ships of the Monsanto class, similar to Cacilhense but featuring a bar and an open
sided deck space aft, reducing tonnage to 280 grt. These were
far more attractive to travel on compared to the previous Cacilhense class, but all four have now been
withdrawn, along with the Cacilhense herself, replaced on most routes
by the many fast ferries delivered since the mid-1990s.
-
- The service linking the
railway station at Estacao do Sul e Sueste (also known as Terreiro
do Paço, and adjacent to the Transtejo terminal at Cais
da Alfandega) to the station at Barreiro had for many years been
run by Caminhos de Ferro Portugueses (CP - Portuguese Railways).
It was the government's intention to transfer Soflusa services
to Transtejo. In 1992, the two large ferries Martim Moniz and S.Jorge were built in Germany for Transtejo, intended
for a Cais de Sodré to Barreiro service. In the event,
the service transfer did not take place and the two ferries were
chartered to CP for their Barreiro service. In 1994, the railway
ferries were transferred to a wholly owned subsidiary Sociedade
Fluvial de Transports S.A. (known as Soflusa). Barreiro was 30
minutes away by conventional ferry on the south bank of the Tagus.
Trains left Barreiro for the south of the country, although the
addition of a railway across the Tagus bridge replaced most of
these routes. Soflusa had eight conventional ferries of their
own, plus the two on charter from Transtejo. The conventional
ferries have been replaced on this service by nine large fast
ferries, which have cut the passage time considerably. Despite
losing many of its train services, Barreiro still acts as a large
bus terminus, and ferries still leave every 5/10 minutes at peak
periods. More recently, Transtejo and Soflusa have combined as
Transtejo e a Soflusa (although each retaining slightly different
management structures).
-
- The mainstay of the Barreiro
services for many decades were six 1000 passenger ferries built
in pairs between 1961 and 1970:- Algarve (1961), Estremadura (1961), Minho (1968), Trás-os-Montes (1968), Alentejo (1970) and Lagos (1970). These were purposeful
looking vessels of 701 gross tons which had a small area of open
top deck. They were joined in 1978/79 by two larger 1600 passenge
ferries, the Tunes and Pinhal Novo. These look like stretched versions of the Cacilhense class and had no external deck
space. All of these conventional ferries were withdrawn in the
mid-2000s when new fast catamarans arrived, Tunes and Pinhal
Novo surviving
longer than the smaller ships for use on peak period extras.
-
- Damião
de Goes was
the first of a series of nine large catamarans built by Damen
Shipyards, Singapure for use by Soflusa on the Barreiro-Terreiro
do Paço route. The complete list is:- Damião de Goes (2003), Augusto Gil (2003), Miguel Torga (2003), Fernando Namora (2003), Gil Vicente (2003), Jorge de Sena (2003), Almeida Garrett (2004), Fernando Pessoa (2004) and Antero de Quental (2004). When I visited
Lisbon in October
2003, I was lucky
to see five of the six 1960s ferries still in service, since
the first four new catamarans had already arrived.
- In 2008, six basic Transtejo
e a Soflusa routes remain, operated by 22 fast catamarans, 2
car ferries and 14 conventional ferries.
-
-
- Conventional Ferries on
this Page:-
- Alentejo (Soflusa: 1970-200?)
Algarve (Soflusa: 1961-200?)
Estremadura (Soflusa: 1961-200?)
Lagos (Soflusa: 1970-200?)
- Martim
Moniz
(Transtejo: 1992- )
Minho (Soflusa: 1968-200?)
- Pinhal
Novo
(Soflusa: 1979-200?)
- S.Jorge (Transtejo: 1992- )
Trás-os-Montes (Soflusa: 1968-200?)
- Tunes (Soflusa: 1978-200?)
-
- Fast Ferries on this Page:-
- Almeida
Garrett
(Soflusa: 2004) - fast catamaran
- Antero
de Quental
(Soflusa: 2004) - fast catamaran
- Augusto
Gil (Soflusa:
2003) - fast catamaran
- Damião
de Goes
(Soflusa: 2003) - fast catamaran
- Fernando
Namora
(Soflusa: 2003) - fast catamaran
- Fernando
Pessoa
(Soflusa: 2004) - fast catamaran
- Gil
Vicente
(Soflusa: 2003) - fast catamaran
- Jorge
de Sena
(Soflusa: 2003) - fast catamaran
- Miguel
Torga
(Soflusa: 2003) - fast catamaran
-
- Sections on this Page:-
- Soflusa
Passenger Ferries
- Martim
Moniz Class
- Chartered from Transtejo 1992-2003
- Soflusa
Fast Ferries
- Fast catamaran ferries deliverered 2003-2004
-
- Other Lisbon Pages:-
- Lisbon
Ferries
- Lisbon Header page
- Transtejo
e Soflusa
- Lisbon combined ferry fleet in 2008
- Transtejo
Car Ferries
- Transtejo
Passenger Ferries
- Soflusa
Ferries
- this page!
- Metro
Transportes do Sul - new Lisbon tramway south of the Tagus
- Aurora
in Lisbon - 2000
- Photographs of P&O's Aurora
- Grand
Princess in Lisbon - 2000 - Photographs of the P&O/Princess cruise ship
- Oriana in Lisbon - 2003 - Photographs of P&O's Oriana
- Costa
Europa in Lisbon - 2008 - Photographs of the Costa Crociere cruise ship
-
- References:-
- Cacilheiros
- Luis Miguel Correia
- www.transtejo.pt - Transtejo
e a Soflusa official website
- www.luso.u-net.com - Excellent English
language site covering Lisbon's ferries, trains, trams and more
-
- Associated Pages:-
- Portuguese Shipping
- Ferry
Postcards
- Cruise
Ship Postcards
- Ocean
Liner Postcards
- Simplon Postcards Home Page
-
-
-
-
- Soflusa Passenger Ferries
-
-
Algarve
- (Soflusa:
1961-200?)
-
- 701
grt - 50.0m long - 1022 passengers
-
-
- Algarve on the Soflusa service
between Barreiro and Terreiro do Paço
- Photo:
© Ian Boyle, 28th October 2003
- Click to open larger
image in new window
-
-
- Algarve on the Soflusa service
between Barreiro and Terreiro do Paço
- Photo:
© Ian Boyle, 28th October 2003
- Click to open larger
image in new window
-
-
- Algarve on the Soflusa service
between Barreiro and Terreiro do Paço
- Photo:
© Ian Boyle, 28th October 2003
- Click to open larger
image in new window
-
-
- Algarve on the Soflusa service
between Barreiro and Terreiro do Paço
- Photo:
© Ian Boyle, 28th October 2003
- Click to open larger
image in new window
-
-
- Algarve on the Soflusa service
between Barreiro and Terreiro do Paço
- Photo:
© Ian Boyle, 28th October 2003
- Click to open larger
image in new window
-
-
- Algarve on the Soflusa service
between Barreiro and Terreiro do Paço
- Photo:
© Ian Boyle, 28th October 2003
- Click to open larger
image in new window
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-
-
-
-
Estremadura
- (Soflusa:
1961-200?)
-
- 701
grt - 50.0m long - 1022 passengers
-
-
- Estremadura was the first of the 1960s ferries
to be withdrawn and scrapped, and I did not photograph her in
service. I caught her accidentally in the images below, which
shows the first four replacement catamarans - left-to-right:
Fernando Namora, Miguel Torga, Augusto Gil and Damião
de Goes
-
-
- Estremadura laid up at Barreiro
(far left)
- Catamarans
- left-to-right: Fernando Namora, Miguel Torga, Augusto Gil
- Photo:
© Ian Boyle, 28th October 2003
- Click to open larger
image in new window
-
-
- Estremadura laid up at Barreiro
(bow visible far left)
- Catamarans
- left-to-right: Fernando Namora, Miguel Torga, Augusto Gil
and Damião de Goes - plus Pinhal Novo far right
- Photo:
© Ian Boyle, 28th October 2003
- Click to open larger
image in new window
-
-
-
-
-
- Minho
- (Soflusa:
1968-200?)
-
- 701
grt - 50.0m long - 1035 passengers
-
-
- Minho
at Barreiro
- Photo:
© Ian Boyle, 28th October 2003
- Click to open larger image in new window
-
-
- Minho
at Barreiro
- Photo:
© Ian Boyle, 28th October 2003
- Click to open larger image in new window
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-
- Minho
at Barreiro
- Photo:
© Ian Boyle, 28th October 2003
- Click to open larger image in new window
-
-
- Minho
at Barreiro
- Photo:
© Ian Boyle, 28th October 2003
- Click to open larger image in new window
-
-
- Minho
at Barreiro
- Photo:
© Ian Boyle, 28th October 2003
- Click to open larger image in new window
-
-
- On board
the Minho
- Photo:
© Ian Boyle, 28th October 2003
- Click to open larger image in new window
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-
-
-
-
Trás-os-Montes
- (Soflusa:
1968-200?)
-
- 701
grt - 50.0m long - 1035 passengers
-
-
- Trás-os-Montes arriving at Terreiro
do Paço
- Photo:
© Ian Boyle, 29th May 2000
- Click to open larger
image in new window
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-
- Trás-os-Montes arriving at Terreiro
do Paço
- Photo:
© Ian Boyle, 29th May 2000
- Click to open larger
image in new window
-
-
- Trás-os-Montes arriving at Terreiro
do Paço
- Photo:
© Ian Boyle, 29th May 2000
- Click to open larger
image in new window
-
-
- Trás-os-Montes arriving at Terreiro
do Paço
- Photo:
© Ian Boyle, 29th May 2000
- Click to open larger
image in new window
-
-
- Trás-os-Montes arriving at Terreiro
do Paço
- Photo:
© Ian Boyle, 29th May 2000
- Click
to open larger image in new window
-
-
- Trás-os-Montes at Barreiro
- Photo:
© Ian Boyle, 28th October 2003
- Click to open larger
image in new window
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- Trás-os-Montes at Barreiro
- Photo:
© Ian Boyle, 28th October 2003
- Click to open larger
image in new window
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- Trás-os-Montes at Barreiro
- Photo:
© Ian Boyle, 28th October 2003
- Click to open larger
image in new window
-
-
- Trás-os-Montes at Barreiro
- Photo:
© Ian Boyle, 28th October 2003
- Click to open larger
image in new window
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-
