Eighteen months after Lisbon's Glória funicular derailed, killing 16 people — most of them foreign visitors — the tragedy is back in the headlines, and this time it's the insurer doing the damage.
Fidelidade, which insures the city-owned transport operator Carris, is fighting compensation claims from victims' families. Documents from those proceedings, quoted at a recent Lisbon City Hall meeting, reportedly argue that because the crash happened so fast, the dead "didn't suffer". Councillors across the political spectrum called the framing cruel and devoid of empathy, and mayor Carlos Moedas went further, branding the insurer's line "shameful" and "deplorable" and saying he had formally conveyed the city's discomfort to Fidelidade.
But there's a more troubling thread for anyone who has ridden the historic lift. In the same proceedings, the insurer is cited as claiming the funicular's lack of safety was known and the derailment "not an unforeseeable event", and that users were aware of the risk. Socialist councillor Pedro Anastácio seized on that logic: if everyone knew, then Lisbon City Council — which owns 100% of Carris — knew too, and had a duty to stop the funicular running. None of that happened, he argued, making the council, the operator and the mayor jointly responsible. Moedas pushed back, accusing the Socialists of politicising a tragedy.
The city's deputy mayor, Gonçalo Reis, described the insurer's statements as deplorable and urged it to compensate families swiftly and without obstruction. For its part, Fidelidade denies refusing to pay victims of the crash, which happened on the evening of September 3 last year and injured many more people beyond the 16 killed. The company says it regrets that excerpts from court documents caused additional suffering.
The meeting also touched on another transport disaster: Lisbon officials extended condolences after a high-speed train collision in Spain — the second deadly crash on the same line within a year. Reis's comment that "we have to restore confidence in infrastructure and transport matters" lands on sensitive ground for a city whose heritage funiculars and trams are a core part of its appeal.
For travellers, the context matters. The Glória funicular, a 19th-century funicular climbing between Restauradores and the Bairro Alto district, reopened after the crash, and Lisbon's tram and funicular network remains in daily use by millions of residents and visitors. But the legal fight has put a spotlight on maintenance culture, oversight and accountability at Carris — questions that haven't been resolved and that travellers may reasonably follow as the compensation proceedings continue. If you're riding Lisbon's historic lifts, it's worth knowing the debate over who knew what, and when, is very much alive.
