Restoration in Praça da Liberdade wants compensation from Metro do Porto

Restoration managers affected by the works in Praça da Liberdade, in Porto, want to be compensated by Metro do Porto based on the values ​​of 2019, threatening or having already filed lawsuits in court, they told Lusa today.

On November 3, an injunction in the amount of 104.5 thousand euros was filed with the Administrative and Fiscal Court (TAF) of Porto by RTM, Lda, an establishment in Praça da Liberdade that has since closed.

Speaking to Lusa, manager Manuel Amaral, who has already opened another space on Rua da Fábrica, also in downtown Porto, said that initially, before April, “Metro simply said that it did not have any type of compensation”.

“When they closed the ticket for good, in April, they offered us a completely ridiculous amount”, he says, having also said that what was asked of the company was compensation for fixed costs.

The manager says that “Metro wants” to compensate establishments based on 2020, a year marked by the covid-19 pandemic, but the business accounts are being made based on 2019, “and not 2020 or 2021”.

“We don’t accept that, because we had the house closed. Everything that is multiplied by zero is zero”, said Manuel Amaral to Lusa.

RTM’s lawyer, Eusébio Amorim, explained to Lusa that this is a precautionary measure for arbitration of provisional repair, in which a monthly amount of around nine thousand euros in compensation is requested.

At stake is the construction of the Pink Line (São Bento – Casa da Música), which started in 2021, also with stations at Hospital Santo António and Galiza.

Fernando Carvalho, from the Avenida restaurant, also told Lusa that “at the outset it is also to go to court”, despite “one more attempt” to reach an agreement.

“What we have received from Metro do Porto is a proposal that they are basing themselves on in 2020 and 2021, two years in which we were closed, so it cannot be there, we have to base ourselves on data from 2019 “, the manager told Lusa.

Estimating that since the beginning of the works, business “has dropped by 90%”, with days “when neither dinner nor lunch is served”, Fernando Carvalho asks Metro do Porto for compensation “normal, no more, no less”.

“There was no need to go to court, they just don’t want to see the reality of things”, he points out, accusing the carrier of making “proposals that have nothing to do” with the situation experienced by Avenida.

According to the official, the amount to be asked will be in the range of “hundreds of thousands of euros”.

On the other hand, Joana Barros, from the confectionery Ateneia, says that for now it will not go to court because it is still “in the process of contestation with Metro do Porto”.

“They asked us for a series of documents that we have not yet been able to provide”, he told Lusa, adding that “only after the analysis of this information on their part, depending on the response”, a decision will be taken.

Joana Barros said she still does not agree with “a series of things” requested by Metro, since in her opinion “the relevant information is sales, billing breaks”, something that has been sent.

“The interest is also not very great” on the part of Metro do Porto, he pointed out, saying that the company has not yet proposed “any amount” of compensation.

Questioned by Lusa, a Metro do Porto source replied that “not wanting and not being able, for privacy reasons, to go into the detail of practical cases or very specific situations”, there are “agreements closed with several commercial establishments” and negotiations with others.

The company claims that “in cooperation with the Associação dos Comerciantes do Porto and with the City Council of Porto” it has carried out a “wide and deep work of evaluating the impacts”, a process “in charge of an entity external to Metro, a society of Auditors”.

This company presents “values ​​for compensation purposes” that “consider the last three years of activity” and are “duly audited”.

“They are transparent, fair and rigorous, even surpassing, in some cases, tens of thousands of euros”, says Metro do Porto.

Following the works, some traders in the affected area have also been transferred to containers adjacent to Trindade station.

The president of Metro assumed the objective of having the Pink Line up and running in the first quarter of 2025, after the works were completed in December 2024, and the costs, together with the extension of the Yellow Line, in Gaia, exceed 400 millions of euros.