Cover from Portugal

There is another europa cover for my collection! For this time it has come from Portugal. The cover has an interesting cancellation, devoted to the 2009 Forum of stamp collectors. Thank you, Nuno for growing my Europa collection!


Urban Public Transport - 2nd Group
Tecnical Data
Urban Transport in the inter-war years
The Paris Universal Exhibition opened on Saturday 14th April 1900. It covered a vast area between Champ-de-Mars, Invalides, Trocadero and the Champs-Elysées. In July of the same year, the first Metro line, 10 km long between Porte de Vincennes and Porte Maillot, was opened by President Emile Loubet, its cast-iron entrances celebrating the undulating lines of Art Nouveau; it was a century which began under the sign of illusions, a century in which everything was dreamlike(1).
1900 in Lisbon was “the time when shop windows and streets were lit by Auer gaslights, when shop assistants left work at eleven at night, only to return, still half asleep, at eight the next morning. If you were in a hurry, you would hire a cabor walk up the Avenida de Liberdade, overtaking the americanos (mule drawn street cars). The more democratic vehicles (the choras and bocetas) appeared to be about to pour their crammed in passengers onto the pavement whenever they crossed the rails” (2).
Until the mid-nineteenth century, Lisbon expanded along the Tagus, developing in a radial-concentric pattern from its nucleus in the Baixa around the end of the century. Until the mid-20th century the road system comprised the former Estrada da Circunvalação or ring road (Morais Soares, Maria Pia) and the radial roads of Lumiar, Benfica, Poço do Bispo and Algés-Dafundo. Urban development along the major arteries (Avenida da Liberdade and the Avenidas Novas or New Avenues) was followed by expansion in zones. Until the end of the 40s the city’s main means of transport was the tram, with a network covering 145 km.
In the first few years of the 20th century, there were several companies operating the Lisbon ferry routes to the “other side” of the Tagus. From its headquarters in Cais do Sodré, the Parceria dos Vapores Lisbonenses ran two ferries daily to Aldeia Galega (Montijo); the fares were 160 réis in the stern and 120 in the bow. On the Cacilhas route, fares varied between 60 réis in the stern and 40 in the bow during the week, with ferries leaving every 40 minutes. (3) In 1948, the number of passengers crossing the Tagus on public transport was 10,486,722. Lisbon was growing, in particular on the north bank; the south bank, meanwhile, was waiting for a bridge.
The Cascais railway section opened to the public in 1889. From the start it was dogged by poor operating profits, further aggravated in 1901 by competition from Carris and its electrically driven vehicles. With tram tickets a third of the price of train tickets, the tram was highly competitive, especially on the Algés route, with its beach, bullring and entertainments. In the light of these low profits, steam traction ultimately gave way to electric traction (1926).