Tel Aviv – Israel’s long-awaited high-speed rail between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem won’t open until September or October 2018, despite an official opening date at the end of the March, Israel Railways announced on Wednesday.
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The rail line – which has been under construction for years – would halve the arduous, traffic-congested route to a speedy 28 minutes between the two cities. But Israel Railways has yet to receive the safety go-ahead for the project.
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“Not all the regulatory approvals required for the operation of the line for commercial use of passengers…have yet to be received,” Israel Railways said in its filing to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange on Wednesday morning. “Such operation is expected to be postponed by six months, subject to the receipt of all such approvals.”
As recent as January, Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz continued to claim that the train would open on schedule.
Gil Yaakov, the head of riders advocacy group “15 Minutes,” blasted the delay and said that the government was already not doing enough for mass transit users.
“The delay in the opening of the high-speed rail line obliges the Transportation Ministry to provide solutions for public transportation passengers who are stuck in traffic jams on the way to Jerusalem,” said Yaakov.
“The insistence of Minister Yisrael Katz not to allocate a [special] public transportation lane [for buses] on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway is puzzling,” Yaakov said, adding: “The travel times in public transportation in Jerusalem are long and do not encourage public transportation.”
The high-speed rail line is the first of its kind in Israel, with construction costs tallying some NIS 7 billion ($2 billion).
Earlier this week, Israel Railways said that test runs would begin on the line. Yet, construction is still ongoing and a Globes report from Sunday indicated that utility poles still hadn’t been placed on one of the train bridges.
The Ministry of Transportation did not have immediate comment as of press time.
I see the term “high speed rail” but nothing about just how fast it’ll be going. Anyone know the specs? thanks
When is there going to be a train from Beersheba to Eilat? Why is it that in 70 years, such a rail line has never been built? It is not fun driving through the desert on a two lane highway, with the meshuganahs on the road!
Don’t mess with shabbos!
The past few months has seen a surge in blatant chilul shabbos in building the railway as the minister in charge insisted it was pikuach nefesh, but he was actually trying to push for his publicly announced deadline of erev pesach
But when you start with the holy shabvos it doesn’t pay. Leave shabbos alone!
To #4 - A link from Beersheba to Eilat, would reduce the fatalities on Israel’s highways. Also, the government would subsidize the train, as is the case, here.