Demand-Responsive Transport in Portugal: Where we are, what´s missing, and how to scale fast🙋
A concise snapshot of DRT in Portugal: mostly rural, phone-booked services for older users and a big opportunity to modernise, reach new groups and reverse depopulation in interior regions. Read the full white paper (August 2025) for data, case studies and practical policy recommendations👇
Highlights
- DRT is active in 9 of Portugal’s 21 Intermunicipal Communities: most services target low-density rural areas.
- Médio Tejo’s DRT (pioneer) reached 41,531 passengers in 2023.
- Other successful launches: Dão e Lafões (~30,000 passengers) and Coimbra (~10,000 passengers after 3 years).
- Most services still require phone reservations a day in advance; digital booking, real-time info and payments are largely absent.
Why DRT in Portugal matters more than ever?
Portugal’s mobility policies require transport even in small localities (>40 residents). DRT can be much more than a law-compliance mechanism for isolated villages. With modest digital upgrades and targeted outreach it can serve workers, students, tourists and remote workers. It can make interior regions more livable and periurban areas better connected, all while lowering operational costs compared with underused fixed routes. The white paper explains where DRT already works and gives practical, low-cost steps to scale it across Portugal.
Current situation:
Today, DRT is primarily rural and geared towards the elderly, with bookings mostly made via the phone. However, evidence from Portugal and elsewhere suggests that it could swiftly evolve into a contemporary mobility solution for workers, students, families, tourists, digital nomads, and individuals with limited mobility.
With a few digital upgrades, DRT could help to reverse depopulation in rural areas and improve connectivity and affordability in periurban regions.
📄 Download the full white paper (August 2025) for all data, case studies and policy-ready recommendations.
Where:
- DRT in PT exists mainly in low-density rural areas, connecting villages to municipal towns.
- It is implemented in 9 of 21 Intermunicipal Communities; not yet in Lisbon or Porto metropolitan areas or in the Azores/Madeira.
- Some DRT services are promoted by municipalities in Portugal:
CCDR* (Comissão de Coordenação e Desenvolvimento Regional do Alentejo): Currently provides a DRT service in the municipalities of Reguengos de Monsaraz, Beja, Moura, Mértola, Alandroal, Montemor-o-Novo, Vendas Novas, Odemira.
Who uses it:
Today’s user base is predominantly elderly residents without a car. Services are designed around their needs:
- Phone bookings with human contact.
- No digital interfaces.
- High tolerance for flexible timing and longer booking windows.
This is effective ⚠️ but excludes most other potential users.
Main Typologies of services:
🚐On demand with pre-defined stops
The dominant model of DRT in PT is the Traditional Rural DRT service (On demand with pre-defined stops). In the context of Portugal, this is characterized by a fixed set of stops but only activated upon reservation. The bookings are made by phone and, usually, until 5pm the day before. The vehicles will only run if someone books and main purpose is to connect villages to municipal centres for essential needs, targeting elderly populations.
Source: NEMI Mobility
🚍 Fixed with on demand stops
Some examples like Médio Tejo’s Link service operate along a core corridor with fixed timing but allow deviations to additional stops when booked. Due to the increased flexibility, this service attracts broader segments such as students and workers and is more suitable for periurban geographies.
Source: NEMI Mobility
🚖 Municipal on-demand micro-services
In small-scale, mostly municipal-run DRTs like in Guimarães and Castelo Branco, these services often use local operators (mostly taxis) and sometimes they include basic web booking or a local app, but generally the UX is inconsistent. Due to the small scale these services allow flexibility at pick-up and/or drop-off stops, a full flexible service is designated door to door.
Source: NEMI Mobility
Gaps: user experience & digitalisation (high-impact)
International experience and a handful of successful Portuguese pilots show that with unexpensive digital upgrades and better community engagement, DRT can serve workers, students, tourists and remote workers — improving access, lowering operating costs and helping reverse depopulation in interior regions.
This white paper synthesises field research and operational data (including case studies such as Médio Tejo, Dão e Lafões and Coimbra), identifies the main UX and digital gaps, and delivers policy-ready recommendations that local and national authorities can act on fast.
📲User experience limitations:
- Phone-only booking, often only during office hours → No last-minute booking options
- Limited options for digital payments
- No real-time vehicle tracking for passengers → higher uncertainty for anyone with time-sensitive schedules
🙋♂️Missing customer segments:
Groups that could strongly benefit from modern DRT but remain unserved:
- Young people (12–24): for sports, evening activities, night mobility.
- Workers in rural/periurban areas: inconsistent schedules + long commutes.
- Digital nomads / remote workers: require mobility for errands & social life.
- Tourists in dispersed areas where no PT options exist.
- People with reduced mobility in urban areas.
Each of these groups requires digital access + predictability + immediate availability — which the current model doesn’t provide.
🎯 Geographic gaps:
- Periurban areas: highest potential for demand aggregation; barely explored.
- Urban niches (night buses, shift workers): strong use cases but abandoned pilots (XBus, Raptor, +Perto) show UX and communication were weak.
- Rural high-potential zones: some regions could increase demand with digitalisation (e.g., Dão e Lafões).
Opportunities — what to do next (practical & quick wins)
Portugal has already laid the groundwork for a national DRT network; the next step is to realise its full potential through digitalisation.
- Modern booking apps, real-time vehicle tracking and digital payments would make the services far more appealing to workers, students, families, tourists and people with reduced mobility — groups that are currently unable to use the services because booking by phone only, with advance notice of one day, is incompatible with their lifestyles. Digitalisation would also enable last-minute reservations, improve predictability and boost user confidence, while streamlining operations and providing authorities with accurate data on service quality and operator performance.
- Converting poorly performing periurban and night-time fixed routes into flexible services. These are areas where buses often run almost empty, but where population density is still high enough to efficiently aggregate demand through DRT. International experience — as well as Portuguese examples such as Médio Tejo’s LINK — shows that periurban DRT can attract students and workers, improve territorial coverage, and significantly reduce operational costs compared with underused fixed lines. Implementing this model in the outskirts of Lisbon and Porto, as well as in regional cities, could have an immediate impact without the need for new infrastructure.
- Engaging citizens early and continuously is essential to accelerating adoption. DRT involves new behaviour, so people need guidance, visibility and trust before they will try it. The success of the Dão e Lafões project demonstrates that field campaigns, local ambassadors and co-creation with residents can dramatically increase usage, particularly among younger and working populations. Together with flexible contracting models, such as the open taxi operator scheme introduced by CIM Coimbra, these measures facilitate the quick and cost-effective launch, scaling and sustenance of higher-quality DRT services by municipalities.
