As discussions continue over the proposed State Budget for next year, the Left Bloc continues to propose that the Algarve’s A22 motorway is free, or at least a lot cheaper for motorists.
The dogged Bloquistas argue that the Algarve’s drivers should not continue to pay tolls on the Via do Infante and that the rest of the region's infrastructure is in a right old mess.
Their reasons are a good summary of what the Algarve’s drivers have had to put up with for the past few years:
"There are no alternative routes, the regional railway looks like it's from the nineteenth century, the EN125 upgrade works should have been completed a year ago and haven’t even started on the Vila Real de Santo António to Olhão stretch, between Olhão and Vila do Bispo the roadworks were suspended and never restarted as promised on September 1st, and the renegotiation of the PP funding contract by the previous government was a fraud as numerous by-passes and other works simply were cancelled to show cost savings.”
The whole EN125 project is at a standstill and the Left Bloc MPs remind parliament that this road happens to be the most dangerous road in the country, according to the National Road Safety Authority.
In the Algarve there is an average of 10,000 accidents a year leaving 35 dead and 160 seriously injured. In August this year there were almost 50 road accidents per day.
The Left Bloc reminds the Prime Minister António Costa that before he was elected he agreed that that the EN125 indeed was a "cemetery" and that he promised to study the PPP financing contract and to remove tolls on the motorway, plans that evaporated as soon as he became prime minister.
"The summertime reduction in tolls by 15% was an achievement but the Socialist party had promised a reduction of 50%. On the other hand, as the Via do Infante tolls were 30% higher than the average for other national tolls, they remain 15% more expensive than the other highways."
The Left Bloc says that if their proposals for some fairness in the Algarve are not heeded, its fight will "double in intensity."
Meanwhile the Algarve's motorists expect the worst - any action therefore can be viewed as a bonus.
Grim statistics:
Almost 6,700 people have died in accidents on Portugal's roads in the last ten years, reads today's announcement on the World Day in Memory of Road Victims which aims to remember those who lost their lives or have been injured.
Accidents caused 6,693 deaths between 2006 and 2015, a number that has been declining annually and in 10 years has fallen by half, according to the National Highway Safety Authority (ANSR).
The latest road accident report published by ANSR show that fatalities fell from 850 in 2006, to 473 last year, with the most significant decline occurring in 2012 when the death toll dropped by 16.8% over 2011.
According to ANSR, 374 have died so far this year, down 17 from the same period in 2015, while the accidents rate has increased by more than 4%.
