Sponsors for the crisis

As you may know, the financial crisis here in Portugal is rather serious. As in Greece (and Italy), the main problem in Portugal is the excessive public debt; this is in contrast to the kind of problems in Spain and Ireland, where the financial crisis is related to the banks' debt. To avoid bankruptcy, last year the Portuguese government negotiated a loan from the IMF and the European Union. Such a loan came with a number of very severe conditions on the way the country should invest its resources in the following years. These conditions are many and rather detailed; for instance, one of them says that the government has to sell one of the two public TV networks. For this reason, it is widely recognized that any ruling government (either left-wing or right-wing) will have very little opportunity to do something---apart from making sure such conditions are duly implemented, that is.

Among the different components of the Portuguese state, public transportation is in a particularly delicate financial situation. This includes the several companies that serve Lisbon (the buses, the metro, the ferries over the Tagus river) as well as the national railway company. The current debt associated to the metro of Porto is also in absurd levels. As a consequence of the huge debts these companies have to deal with, their services have been reduced or drastically modified so as to optimize resources. More dramatically, fares have increased significantly. Just in the Lisbon region they have been increased at least twice during 2011. It would not me surprise me if there are other increments before 2012.

In this context, the metro of Lisbon has started to reduce its services.  For instance, after 21:30h trains get shortened: rather than using six cars, they use only three. This idea first started in the blue line, which is probably the most used one. Today I have learned that they will be implementing this same reduction in the yellow line, which I use less.  This is a very reasonable thing to do, as you could see almost empty trains late at night.

In what appears to be another creative solution to the crisis, last week the most important metro station in Lisbon has been sponsored. Indeed, the metro of Lisbon has signed an agreement with Portugal Telecom (PT, the largest telco in the country) and now the Baixa-Chiado station is called the "Baixa-Chiado PT bluestation". This is the first time I hear of a public building (a metro station, in this case) which becomes sponsored by a commercial brand. As a result, every piece of public information in the station contains the PT logo; also, a number of video beans projecting news and PT ads have been placed in what I am sure is the largest, most transited station in Lisbon.

This sponsoring scheme is already common in stadiums and large venues, which are mostly private and very costly to build.  However, it is strange to see such a traditional place in Lisbon becoming sponsored, even if PT is still a public company. Can you imagine the Châtelet-Les Halles Orange station in Paris? Or the King's Cross BT station in London? (In contrast, I am not surprised at all to know that there is a AT&T Station in Pennsylvania.)

Needless to say, the new name of the Baixa-Chiado station is a rather cosmetic consequence of the crisis; many Portuguese are dealing with consistent salary cuts, new taxes, downsizing of public services, and general pessimism.  However, it is unavoidable to feel that, in the name of the crisis, certain "reasonable" limits are being overcome by things such as sponsoring a metro station. This is particularly troubling when you realize that surely there are ongoing actions which are less evident (and more disturbing) than changing the name of a metro station.