[PT] National Train Pass - Considerations

[Giugiaro]

As some of you may already know, Portugal launched their version of the Deutschland-Ticket this month.

For 49€ this pass allows unlimited travel on Regional services in all the country, including the connection to Badajoz (ES).

Despite its name, there are severe limitations that discourage anyone from buying this pass:

• The pass is only valid on Regional services, meaning that any Urban, InterRegional, InterCity and Alfa trains are automatically excluded;
• Because of the limited coverage of regional services in Portugal, the pass only works on a very disjointed network and inadequate timetable;
• Most Regional services start outside of the Urban Networks of Lisbon and Porto, meaning that the NTP is useless for accessing both cities;
• Some stations or lines are only served with InterRegional or InterCity trains, so the NTP has no coverage or forces one to do some pretty absurd transfers (Pinhão, Pocinho, Figueira da Foz, Beja, and Algarve from Lisbon, for example).

My advice for anyone travelling to or around Portugal is to avoid buying the NTP first, then consider if the journeys you plan to do have coverage from the NTP, and finally check if you'll travel enough to break even.

For those aged between 12 and 30 (inclusively), there's the INTRA_RAIL option with coverage on all trains except Alfa.
For those aged less than 12 and more than 30, there's the Portugal Rail Pass option with coverage on all trains.
For everyone, Interrail Global Passes allow travel between and within Spain and Portugal.

 

[peterblue]

Thank you for sharing.

It's unlike Germany, where it's possible to reach practically anywhere (just on slower regional trains). However for some travellers it may still represent a saving by utilising a combination of tickets.

You mention it is valid to Badajoz in Spain. What is the validity of Portugese railpasses entering Spain/Tui from the north?

 

[Giugiaro]

Good evening @peterblue

The Celta, being an International train, is excluded from all passes except Interrail.