A maintenance tender for the 140-year-old funicular cart that crashed in Lisbon on Wednesday, killing 17 people, was cancelled earlier this week because the bids were too expensive.
Authorities in the Portuguese capital are investigating what caused the Elevador da Glória — a cable car popular with tourists that dates to 1885 — to derail, hurtle down a steep hill and smash into a building around 6pm, local time (3am Thursday AEST).
In addition to the fatalities, 23 people were injured in the incident.
Information available online shows Carris, the publicly owned company that operates Lisbon's funiculars, cancelled a maintenance tender for them on Monday.
It said the decision had been made because "the bidders' proposals are higher than the base price".
The company has since claimed that despite the scrapped tender process, no maintenance checks have been missed on any of the city's funicular lines.
In a statement, it said "general maintenance", which takes place every four years, was last carried out in 2022 and "interim repairs", which occur every two years, last took place in 2024.
The company also said, "the monthly and weekly maintenance programs and daily inspections have been scrupulously complied with".
However, a Portuguese union official, Manuel Leal, told local media outlets that Carris employees had filed "successive complaints" about the need for maintenance on Lisbon's funiculars.
He said there must be an independent investigation into the "root cause" of the crash.
"Especially because workers have been reporting for a long time that the maintenance of these elevators must return to the responsibility of Carris workers and not be handed over to external companies, as is the specific case of the Glória elevator," he told the Lusa news agency.
A colleague of the driver who died in Wednesday's crash told the ABC "we need to learn" from the incident.
On Thursday, Carris chief Pedro de Brito Bogas said the company was doing everything it could to assist authorities probing the crash.
'It easily could have been me'
The Elevador da Glória carries an estimated 3 million passengers each year on a steep 275-metre journey between Restorers Square and the lively Bairro Alto district.
A ride lasts about 3 minutes.
An American woman, Becky, was at the scene shortly after the crash on Wednesday and saw body bags being carried away.
"I just feel for their families. We knew it was packed with tourists like ourselves, but their families are back home," she said.
"They're going to get a terrible call. That just hits home. I wouldn't want my kids to have that call."
Josh, an Australian tourist in Lisbon, told the ABC he had been staying in the area for several nights.
"It's just devastating," he said.
"It was quite surreal. I walked up that street about midday on Wednesday.
"It was so close. It easily could have been me. I feel for the people involved and the people who have lost loved ones."
The Australian government said it was not aware of any of its citizens affected by the incident.
Lisbon's mayor has declared three days of mourning in the city, and the public prosecutor's office has announced it has launched an investigation.
The Elevador da Glória has experienced several safety issues in the past, including a derailment in 2018, although no one was injured that time.
