Public Transportation on River Tagus

Finding new ways for traveling at a high commercial speed, comfortable, safe, cheap and preserving as much as possible the environment by using less fuel is the new challenge for the public transport operators that run their business in the 21st century. One of the alternatives for the passengers that are using public transportation vehicles is to travel using water buses or ferries. The paper presents the five public transportation routes on water that connects Lisbon with the other cities nearby. It is presented the entire boat fleet used by the local transport operator Transtejo and Soflusa. The article is focused on finding solutions for a particularly transport route that is Barreiro-Terreiro do Paço. The problem consists of using boats having a capacity of 600 passengers out of rush hour leading to half loaded boats. Using boats with a capacity of 500 passengers out of rush hour will have a high impact for the transport operator, passengers and environment as it will be showed in the paper. The paper is structured as follow: introduction, data regarding routes and boat fleet, case study route Barreiro-Terreiro do Paço, fuel consumption simulation, solutions for the problem, conclusions and further research, acknowledgment, reference list.