Entre Campos underground station, platform

Plans for the construction of an underground train in Lisbon date back to the 1930s, but this new form of transport on rails beneath the feet of the people of Lisbon only began to take shape in 1948, when the Sociedade Metropolitano de Lisboa was formed. Works began in 1955 and were completed four years later, resulting in a Y-shaped network composed of 11 stations and linking Restauradores to Sete Rios and to Entre Campos. The north-south corridors were prioritised, that being the main direction of road traffic.

In the first few days after it opened, on 29 December 1959, 216 thousand tickets were sold, at a price of 1 escudo 50 centavos per trip. On 31 December, many people decided to see in the start of 1960 on the underground and the carriages travelled ‘full to the brim’ that night.

58 years later, the metro has a network extending 45 km, with 56 stations and, in 2017, it carried more than 160 million passengers.