Mobility and transport plan for the World Youth Day, Lisbon 2023

The Portuguese Government established a team to coordinate and prepare many of the aspects of the World Youth Day 2023, in Lisbon. WYD is the largest Catholic event, bringing together hundreds of thousands, even millions, of young people from all over the world for various meetings with the Pope. VTM was chosen to develop the mobility and transport plan for this event that has historically been the largest event ever organized by the host country, in all its previous editions.

The development of the mobility plan included numerous stakeholders, such as the Church, the Portuguese Government, public transport operators, road and rail infrastructure agency, safety, security and entities, and the municipalities in which the event took place.

An event with such a scale presented challenges in a wide range of domains, mobility being one of them. The goal of the mobility plan was to support the management and organization of the daily flow of pilgrims in their different forms: walking, through public transport and/or with hired buses. In parallel, the use of public transport was promoted as the backbone of the event’s mobility, and this required an in-depth study of the expected levels of demand and the identification of the specific needs of strengthening the public transport offer.

In addition, a parking plan was developed that prepared the city to accommodate the expected significant number of rented buses that would park inside it on a daily basis. This was complemented by a circulation plan, which defined the main pedestrian routes to be used in the city, avoiding congestion on the city’s main roads. All this work was carried out in close coordination with the security teams, guaranteeing the safety of all the pilgrims and the city.

VTM also produced a number of elements which integrated the communication plan of the event. This helped entities such as the municipalities, and transport operators transmitting the most pertinent information to pilgrims, residents, daily users of the city and tourists.