Government plans to merge the country’s Refer rail network with Estradas de Portugal (EP) will save Portugal a cool €50 million – but will they work? This is the question being asked by Socialists who say they were not even aware the government has done its homework on the idea.
Suggesting the move – earmarked for 2015 – is “ill prepared”, Socialist Eurico Brilhante Dias said today that his party had no inkling of the working group that is meant to have decided that the merger will bring economic benefits.
Talking to Lusa, Dias said it was much more likely to bring extra expenses and organisational “turbulence”.
“Either the government should set out clearly the advantages of a fusion, or this is just another poorly prepared attempt to meddle in a very sensitive area”, he said.
Nonetheless the plan – announced on Thursday by minister for infrastructures, transport and communications Sérgio Monteiro is set to go ahead “as fast as possible”.
The new company – to be called Infra-estruturas de Portugal – will have a workforce of up to 4000 people and manage a debt of over 10.000 million euros, said Monteiro. This suggests there will be staff layoffs, as EP currently employs 2.800 people, and Refer, at last count, had over 1.400.
Calling the plan “rational from a strategic point of view”, Economy Minister Pires de Lima said there was no point delaying the decision to push ahead. The government is expected to rubber stamp merger plans later this month.
As Público newspaper point out, this latest fusion follows similar transport mergers in Lisbon and Porto.
