Senior discount for public transportation

Not to worry about this. You go and ask when appropriate. You will find out straightaway. I hope a senior discount is not a make or break point for your trip.

Lisbon, looks not. https://www.carris.pt/en/buy/discounts/

Porto doesn't look good either.

Train tickets are half off for seniors. I just bought some.

The only discount is on the long distance trains. However, if you buy two weeks in advance, I find the discount to be equal or better than the senior discount. There is also a discount on monthly transit passes in Lisbon but you have to be a resident. All this said, public transport is quite cheap compared to other European countries.

Thanks to everyone for their replies, which suggests that Lisbon falls short of other European cities I have been to recently- Warsaw, Lodz, Budapest, Madrid? - where I could ride for free. (I might be mistaken on Madrid, my memory gets some of these places mixed up.)

Lisbon public transport is very cheap
(The whole day unlimited pass is such a great value)
And Bolt are very economical too.

Portugal is suffering from onslaught of visitors post COVID. Unreasonable to expect their suffering local taxpayers to subsidize tourists from rich countries

They certainly will not mind those whining about their very economical public transport preferring to go to other cities like Lodz.

TravelJunkie, cheap is in the eye of the beholder. 15 euro for a day pass isn't cheap in my book. 37 euro for a 3 day pass sounds a bit better. Like a lot of cities Lisbon uses the day pass to make tourists subsidize the system for the locals. I think its brilliant, so no complaint. I think we should jack up our prices here to closer to Lisbon's for the same reason.

hsgotts, sure you didn't mean anything by it, but your language could be better constructed. When you say "which suggests that Lisbon falls short of other European cities I have been to recently" you are going to alienate some of those who would otherwsie help you. See, a lof of the good help here comes from those that personal connections to a place and you want to respect that when you are talking to them. Dont worry about me, never been to Portugal. Just saying......

Lisbon day passes are-
Carris/Metro 6,80€;
Valid for unlimited journeys on Carris and Metro, networks during 24 hours following the first validation.

Carris/Metro/Transtejo (Cacilhas) 9,80€;
Valid for unlimited journeys on Carris, Metro and Transtejo (Cacilhas river connection), during 24 hours following the first validation.

Carris/Metro/CP 10,80€;
Valid for unlimited journeys on Carris, Metro and CP (Sintra, Cascais, Azambuja and Sado lines), during 24 hours following the first validation.

All of which are pretty good value- basically the Carris/Metro version pays for itself on the 4th journey. Even less for the Transjeto and CP versions.

It needs to be said for Americans expecting to get free travel in Europe- it is rare to find free or even discounted travel for non-Americans in US cities- almost always that seems to be reserved for local residents only and even then there is often paperwork to be gone through to get the free travel.

isn31c, somehow I found different prices. I am sure you are correct as that makes a lot more sense. In my city the free for over 65 was a political move (that worked). Making it available for for tourists I think had more to do with logistics and enforceability than trying to be nice to the tourists. Prior to this year you had to be resident and you had to apply for a card.

@ isn31c, everyone gets into the Smithsonian museums in Washington DC for free. They do not charge those from the EU, however, there are many museums in the EU with substantial discounts for EU residents and none for nonEU. I've never seen a U.S. museum or attraction that offers a senior discount, with ID, that differentiates between U.S. citizens and other.

There are many countries that offer a senior discount for transportation. It is an ok question to ask though the OP might have worded his/her response differently.

Some of these responses imply that I have a haughty expectation that foreigners should be entitled to cheap or even free public transportation. I was asking about discounts for SENIORS, which would of course apply to the native population, and hopefully by extension to elderly foreign visitors.

If you look at the Carris website for Lisbon you will see that locals aged over 65 (or otherwise retired and on a low income) do get very, very heavily discounted travel. But only for locals, not for visitors as the cost of that concession will be met through the tax burden.

Much the same as the free local bus travel locals over retirement age receive in the UK (or over 60 in Scotland, and extends there to long distance coaches as well). That is funded partly by the tax payers and partly by higher fares for those who do pay in about a 40:60 ratio. So it just isn't possible to extend that to visitors.

Isn31c, thank you for your clarification!