On September 3, 2025, at around 6 p.m., a Glória funicular car broke free from its cable and crashed into the wall of a building on Calçada da Glória. Sixteen of the 27 passengers were killed, including driver André Marques, who tried to stop the car using both the handbrake and pneumatic brake until the very last moment. Tram 601 on the 15E line has since been named after him.
A year later, the official causes have still not been established. Interim reports by GPIAAF, the state agency responsible for investigating aviation and railway accidents, found that the cable that snapped was not certified for passenger transport, while systemic failures occurred in procurement, maintenance and oversight. The final report, originally expected by the anniversary, has been postponed until the end of the first quarter of 2027. Prosecutors expect to bring charges by the end of this year. According to Público, former Carris director of electric transport maintenance Filipe Fraga and MNTC contractor owner Gustavo Pita Soares have already been formally designated as suspects.
What will happen to the funicular itself became clear on August 31. Carris CEO Rui Lopo presented the “five principles” of the new project at the Ordem dos Engenheiros, with the first being that it will be a new installation rather than a reconstruction. The configuration will remain broadly similar, but wood will be removed from the structure in favor of more durable materials. The two cars running on a shared cable will remain, as will the driver, but LiDAR sensors and video analytics will be added to automatically stop the funicular if a dangerous situation is detected. For the first time, the funicular will also be accessible to wheelchair users. The preliminary design is being prepared by a team comprising architect Ricardo Bak Gordon, engineer Rui Furtado and historian Leonor Medeiros. An international tender for the design and construction is due to be launched by the end of March 2027, with the reopening planned for 2029. The cost is not yet known, and there is no final design. The presentation featured an AI-generated image, while journalists were not given access to the actual project document. The surviving Car 2 will be sent to a museum, and a memorial will be installed at Largo da Oliveirinha.
There is still no date for the return of Lavra, Bica or Santa Justa. “At this time, there is no confirmed reopening date,” Carris says on its new page tracking the status of Lisbon’s historic transport. Of the five funiculars and lifts that were taken out of service, only Funicular da Graça is operating. It opened in 2024 and resumed service on April 30. Nascer do Sol and CNN Portugal reported on August 28 that Lavra would also be replaced with a new installation, that Santa Justa would return in January with a new cable, and that Bica would retain its current appearance with additional safety reinforcement. Carris has not confirmed these plans, however. Lopo said only that the assessment of Santa Justa “has progressed further than that of Lavra, but it will take time.”
Bak Gordon compared what happened to the Chiado fire, after which Siza Vieira redesigned the neighborhood. The accident, he argued, provides an opportunity to critically rethink the site itself.It is hard to argue with engineers over whether a mechanism dating back to 1885 can be brought into compliance with modern safety standards. But from the outside, the picture looks like this: the operator allowed the infrastructure to deteriorate to the point of catastrophe, and will now replace it with something new. Lisbon will lose one of its symbols not because it was too old, but because of a cable that should never have been there in the first place. A detailed analysis is available from Lisboa Para Pessoas, while the current status of all the historic lifts and funiculars is listed on Carris’s website.
