The Metro Mondego, which began to take shape in March 1994, in a decree from Cavaco Silva's last executive, aimed to ensure a light rail connection serving the municipalities of Coimbra, Lousã and Miranda do Corvo.

However, over the course of 30 years, it has seen several projects, studies and operating models, as well as advances and setbacks.

According to reports and accounts from Metro Mondego itself, the Court of Auditors' audit of the project in 2011 and information provided by the responsible entities to the Lusa agency, the investment, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2025, totals 327 million euros, 200 million euros of which is in the current project that is being carried out, which abandoned the idea of a light rail and replaced it with a solution of electric buses on a dedicated route.

The current project, which was launched by the Government led by António Costa, definitively abandoned the idea of a light rail and went ahead with the 'metrobus', a project that was supposed to cost 90 million euros, according to the study that supported the Government's decision in 2017.

However, in 2020, when several contracts were awarded, the estimate was already 130 million euros, with the completion of the suburban route expected by the end of the following year.

However, it was not only the deadlines that were revised, but also the overall investment in the current project, which is now 200 million euros, an official source from Metro Mondego told Lusa, stating that, of the total amount, 117 million euros are in basic infrastructure, 34 million euros in electric buses and 15 million euros in other components, such as workshops or ticketing.

In addition to these 200 million euros from the current project, there are 104 million euros spent up to November 2010, when the works of the initial project were suspended due to an alleged lack of financial capacity of the Government, at a time of financial crisis.

According to an audit by the Court of Auditors carried out in 2011 on Metro Mondego, of the 104 million euros spent on the project since its conception, ten million euros were invested in studies and projects, without any operation of a light rail on the ground.

The audit also reveals that, between 1997 and 2010, Metro Mondego, as a company, spent 3.4 million euros on its board of directors, in a report that also reported alleged personal expenses with the company's credit card by two members of the corporate bodies (who were acquitted in court, one due to the statute of limitations for the crime of malfeasance).

After 2011, at a time when the Government considered extinguishing Metro Mondego, the costs of the project were limited, for many years, to the payment of personnel expenses by the company, which reduced its staff until 2019, when the project regained momentum.

Between 2011 and 2023, according to reports and accounts from Metro Mondego consulted by Lusa, almost ten million euros were spent on salaries, studies and other operational and administrative expenses.

From 2019 onwards, expenses increased again, in order to give the company the capacity to respond to a project that was beginning to materialize and in which it is responsible for some of the investments (it went from nine employees to 19 in 2023).

In addition to all these expenses, there are also 12.9 million euros in 14 years of road services as an alternative to the Ramal da Lousã, which stopped operating in January 2010, awaiting a project that is expected to be completed in less than two years, three decades and more than 300 million euros later.

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