"We have decided, with organisations of workers and users, to create a movement [to] demand specific measures” to remedy the situation, Fectrans coordinator José Manuel Oliveira told Lusa. “Between September 20 and October 3 we will start a series of actions nationwide, to end … with a demonstration [in the form of industrial] action."

According to Oliveira, workers have many "major concerns about the present moment", including a lack of investment in the sector and "drastic" staff cuts.

"We believe that this situation will worsen in the near future,” he said. “Some measures that have already been introduced do not fully correspond to what was announced, for example it looks as though the [announced] hiring of 102 workers is [really] only 40 because the other 62 are already here or, at least, are on casual contracts.”

In addition, Fectrans has decided in an initial phase to start distributing a document to the public to explain the cause of the rail sector’s current situation.

On 24 October, a "Road Forum" event is to be held with the aim of bringing together rail "workers’, users’, technicians’ and specialists’ organisations" to reflect on the current situation in the sector and what is needed to respond to it.

"If steps are not taken, next year, [state rail operator] CP will be faced with the emergence of new operators, without having any capacity to respond or compete" with them, he concluded.