STCP (Sociedade de Transportes Colectivos do Porto, E.I.M., S.A., lit. ''Porto Public Transport Society'') is the public transport company that runs the bus and

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

service in Greater

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

, Portugal. Created in 1946, it took over the Porto tram system from its privately owned predecessor and continues to operate it today, but the formerly large tram system now has only three lines, which are

heritage tram Conservation and restoration of rail vehicles aims to preserve historic rail vehicles. Trains It may concern trains that have been removed from service and later restored to their past condition, or have never been removed from service, like UP ...

lines, and the STCP network is now mostly

bus service Public transport bus services are generally based on regular operation of transit buses along a route calling at agreed bus stops according to a published public transport timetable. History of buses Origins While there are indications ...

. STCP does not operate the city's light rail system,

Porto Metro The Porto Metro ( pt, Metro do Porto), part of the public transport (mass transit) system of Porto, Portugal, is a light rail network that runs underground in central Porto and above ground into the city's suburbs. ''Metro do Porto S.A.'' was f ...

, but owns 25% of it.Webb, Mary (Ed.) (2009). ''Jane’s Urban Transport Systems 2009-2010'', pp. 276–278. Coulsdon, Surrey (UK):

Jane's Information Group Jane's Information Group, now styled Janes, is a global open-source intelligence company specialising in military, national security, aerospace and transport topics, whose name derives from British author Fred T. Jane. History Jane's Informatio ...

. . It is a public company controlled by a board responsible to the central government and had about 1,500 employees in 2009. STCP operates 83 bus routes – of which 11 are late-night-only routes – and the bus service covers 539 km of routes.

History

STCP's name originally was ''Serviço de Transportes Colectivos do Porto''. It was created in 1946, when the municipality took over the ''Companhia Carris de Ferro do Porto'' (CCFP) (the Porto Tramways Company), which had been in operation since 1873 and, apart from a brief period in 1907–08, had provided all public transport service in Porto since 1893.King, B. R.; and Price, J. H. (1995). ''The Tramways of Portugal'' (4th edition). London:

Light Rail Transit Association The Light Rail Transit Association (LRTA), formerly the Light Railway Transport League (LRTL), is a non-profit organisation whose purpose is to advocate and encourage research into the retention and development of light rail and tramway/street ...

. . The municipal government purchased CCFP under a contract option accepted by the private company in 1906. An operating concession granted to the company at that time gave it an exclusive franchise to operate public transport in Porto but included an option allowing the city to purchase the system after 35 years. It did so in 1946, adopting the name ''Serviço de Transportes Colectivos do Porto'' for the new municipal authority. In addition to

s and

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

es, STCP's service included

trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...

es from 1959–1997.Murray, Alan (2000). ''World Trolleybus Encyclopaedia'', p. 71. Yateley, Hampshire, UK: Trolleybooks. . In 1994, STCP became a ''

Sociedade Anónima The abbreviation S.A. or SA designates a type of limited company in certain countries, most of which have a Romance languages, Romance language as their official language and employ civil law (legal system), civil law. Originally, shareholders ...

'' (

limited liability company A limited liability company (LLC for short) is the US-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability of a ...

), and the first word of its name was changed to "Sociedade".

Fleet

STCP's fleet includes

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

and

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two dif ...

buses. The company has a small R&D group that has developed technologies to support the eco-friendly

fleet Fleet may refer to: Vehicles *Fishing fleet *Naval fleet *Fleet vehicles, a pool of motor vehicles *Fleet Aircraft, the aircraft manufacturing company Places Canada *Fleet, Alberta, Canada, a hamlet England * The Fleet Lagoon, at Chesil Beach, ...

, like a pump for natural gas with higher throughput. This enabled buses to spend a smaller time at the pumps refilling. As of 2009,

low-floor Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i.e ...

vehicles comprise 92% of STCP's fleet, and 73% of the fleet is

air-conditioned Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

. The fleet also included 15

double-decker bus A double-decker bus or double-deck bus is a bus that has two storeys or decks. They are used for mass transport in the United Kingdom, the United States, New Zealand, Europe, Asia and also in cities such as Sydney; the best-known example is the ...

es at that time. The company is migrating its fleet to use the

Andante Andante may refer to: Arts * Andante (tempo), a moderately slow musical tempo * ''Andante'' (manga), a shōjo manga by Miho Obana * "Andante" (song), a song by Hitomi Yaida * "Andante, Andante", a 1980 song by ABBA from ''Super Trouper'' * ' ...

ticketing system.

References

External links

STCP official webpage

STCP official website (English)Tourist information on STCP buses and tramsTram Travels: Sociedade de Transportes Colectivos do Porto (STCP)
{{Authority control Bus companies of Portugal Public transport operators Public transport in Portugal Tram transport in Portugal Transport in Porto Government agencies established in 1946

History

Fleet

See also

References

External links