News from afpop - Friday 7th of July 2023
Michael Reeve - 07-07-2023
News from afpop - Friday 7th of July 2023
Included in this Member Briefing: 1. National Rail Pass 2. WYD 3. CP (rail) strikes 4. afpop/MEDAL Insurance golf tournament 5. Satellite Offices
Good afternoon to you all and as we don’t have a great deal to include in this Member Briefing, I wanted to take the space that I have to address a couple of things, which if you’re not interested in you can of course skip over and get to the good stuff.
When we began these Briefings, as many of you will remember, it was specifically about COVID and the restrictions etc, to try to cut away the clutter and let Members know what was happening. As that began to lessen I told you all that I wanted these News from afpop (NfA) mailings to continue, but reduce them in frequency and not to make them gossipy or irrelevant. Fortunately (or otherwise) there are still significant happenings for us to include, a good (or bad) example of which has been the recent raft of strikes by various organisations. I know from personal contact, one of which on this week, that the information about rail strikes (sadly also included this week) have been appreciated by some members.
We have been asked if we can include more regional things and this is where the problem starts to arise, in that we aren’t looking for things in specific areas to inform you about, but things which are announced by government or national agencies which will affect everyone. Of course we have some instances where road works in Lisbon or other things in the Algarve or Porto affect people in, or travelling to, those areas, but we are not searching for them and looking for things to tell you about.
This is not a criticism of anyone who has asked us about this, and there have been a few this year, and of course if there are things that we feel will affect lives of Members in specific areas we will always include them. If any of you have suggestions about other things that you might find interesting for the NfA’s then of course you can drop a short note to the office, along the lines of ‘Hey you lot, have you thought about *******’ for the mailings?’ and whilst we wont be able to reply to all suggestions individually, we certainly will consider them. That is the end of this public service announcement.
Sometimes the content of the Briefings make me laugh out loud, like today, when we have news of a new rail pass and also more rail strikes. Funny!
Anyway, here’s what we have for you this week;
National Rail Pass
There is a new National Rail Pass, which gives access to all regional trains for €49/month.
The new pass works with monthly top-ups and can be used on any regional train nationwide, regardless of origin, destination and schedule. It affords unlimited travel with no time restrictions. The government calls it “a low-cost and ecological transport solution, which allows for commuting and other trips, with flexibility throughout the country.”
The National Rail Pass can now be purchased at any CP ticket office and will be valid from the 1st of August. The ticket does not accumulate with other discounts and, being exclusively for the Regional service, journeys on Inter-regional and Urban trains are excluded.
WYD
You might have read in the news about the upcoming World Youth Day. The gathering of young people from all over the world that precedes WYD Lisbon 2023, will be held from 26th to 31th July 2023. There will be a visit from the His Holiness Pope Francis to Portugal on the occasion of the WYD Lisbon 2023 and you can find a schedule here:
https://www.lisboa2023.org/en/official-schedule-for-pope-s-visit They are anticipating hundreds of thousands of pilgrims.
Lisbon Townhall has given workers a holiday on 4th of August, so that they can participate in WYD, and recommends teleworking in the capital from 31st of July until 3rd of August.
Border control will be further enforced in the first week of August for reasons of internal security and public order, so if crossing any land, air or sea borders – even just to go shopping in Spain, remember your passport.
CP (rail) strikes
The rail workers have announced a continuance of their strike, for the period between 00h00 on the 6th of July and 23h59 on the 6th of August, disturbances in rail traffic are expected, in all services, with possible impact on the day after the strike period, on the 7th of August. https://www.cp.pt/passageiros/pt/consultar-horarios/avisos/greve-julho-agosto
afpop/MEDAL Insurance golf tournament
A reminder for the golfers that the fourteenth annual Golf Tournament with MEDAL Insurance will take place at Penina on Wednesday 13th of September. As usual it will be a shotgun start at 8h45 and we will confirm all details in the August edition of UPDATE.
Any Member wishing to take part in the tournament can register their interest by contacting the afpop office on info@afpop.com
Satellite Offices
A reminder that there are no Satellite Offices in July or August. We will be back in September.
When we began these Briefings, as many of you will remember, it was specifically about COVID and the restrictions etc, to try to cut away the clutter and let Members know what was happening. As that began to lessen I told you all that I wanted these News from afpop (NfA) mailings to continue, but reduce them in frequency and not to make them gossipy or irrelevant. Fortunately (or otherwise) there are still significant happenings for us to include, a good (or bad) example of which has been the recent raft of strikes by various organisations. I know from personal contact, one of which on this week, that the information about rail strikes (sadly also included this week) have been appreciated by some members.
We have been asked if we can include more regional things and this is where the problem starts to arise, in that we aren’t looking for things in specific areas to inform you about, but things which are announced by government or national agencies which will affect everyone. Of course we have some instances where road works in Lisbon or other things in the Algarve or Porto affect people in, or travelling to, those areas, but we are not searching for them and looking for things to tell you about.
This is not a criticism of anyone who has asked us about this, and there have been a few this year, and of course if there are things that we feel will affect lives of Members in specific areas we will always include them. If any of you have suggestions about other things that you might find interesting for the NfA’s then of course you can drop a short note to the office, along the lines of ‘Hey you lot, have you thought about *******’ for the mailings?’ and whilst we wont be able to reply to all suggestions individually, we certainly will consider them. That is the end of this public service announcement.
Sometimes the content of the Briefings make me laugh out loud, like today, when we have news of a new rail pass and also more rail strikes. Funny!
Anyway, here’s what we have for you this week;
National Rail Pass
There is a new National Rail Pass, which gives access to all regional trains for €49/month.
The new pass works with monthly top-ups and can be used on any regional train nationwide, regardless of origin, destination and schedule. It affords unlimited travel with no time restrictions. The government calls it “a low-cost and ecological transport solution, which allows for commuting and other trips, with flexibility throughout the country.”
The National Rail Pass can now be purchased at any CP ticket office and will be valid from the 1st of August. The ticket does not accumulate with other discounts and, being exclusively for the Regional service, journeys on Inter-regional and Urban trains are excluded.
WYD
You might have read in the news about the upcoming World Youth Day. The gathering of young people from all over the world that precedes WYD Lisbon 2023, will be held from 26th to 31th July 2023. There will be a visit from the His Holiness Pope Francis to Portugal on the occasion of the WYD Lisbon 2023 and you can find a schedule here:
https://www.lisboa2023.org/en/official-schedule-for-pope-s-visit They are anticipating hundreds of thousands of pilgrims.
Lisbon Townhall has given workers a holiday on 4th of August, so that they can participate in WYD, and recommends teleworking in the capital from 31st of July until 3rd of August.
Border control will be further enforced in the first week of August for reasons of internal security and public order, so if crossing any land, air or sea borders – even just to go shopping in Spain, remember your passport.
CP (rail) strikes
The rail workers have announced a continuance of their strike, for the period between 00h00 on the 6th of July and 23h59 on the 6th of August, disturbances in rail traffic are expected, in all services, with possible impact on the day after the strike period, on the 7th of August. https://www.cp.pt/passageiros/pt/consultar-horarios/avisos/greve-julho-agosto
afpop/MEDAL Insurance golf tournament
A reminder for the golfers that the fourteenth annual Golf Tournament with MEDAL Insurance will take place at Penina on Wednesday 13th of September. As usual it will be a shotgun start at 8h45 and we will confirm all details in the August edition of UPDATE.
Any Member wishing to take part in the tournament can register their interest by contacting the afpop office on info@afpop.com
Satellite Offices
A reminder that there are no Satellite Offices in July or August. We will be back in September.
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