Tel Aviv light rail will launch at lower speed, frequency

Tel Aviv light rail credit: Shutterstock
Tel Aviv light rail credit: Shutterstock

"Globes" has learned that in order to start operations on April 26, the Red Line will compromise on quality of service and the number of trains during the run-in period.

The opening of the Tel Aviv light rail Red Line has been delayed for years but Minister of Transport Miri Regev recently announced that it would begin operations on Independence Day (April 26). However, a source familiar with the situation has told "Globes" that the light rail, which is scheduled to carry 250,000 passengers a day across the Tel Aviv Metropolitan region, will compromise on quality of service and the number of trains during a run-in period.

Less than two months before the many-times postponed operations begin, NTA Metropolitan Mass Transit System Ltd. (NTA) is refusing to provide details about the Red Line's operations - how many trains will run per hour and how long journeys will take. But a person close to the matter has told "Globes" that in the first stage there will be 10 trains per hour in each direction on the busiest section of the line from the underground station in Tel Aviv Elifelet to Petah Tikva.

The company is coping with a range of challenges and problems

There will be three separate services on the Red Line: R1 from Petah Tikva to Bat Yam (the full line); R2 from Kiryat Arye to Bat Yam, which won't operate when the line begins; and R3 from Kiryat Arye to Elifelet. In other words passengers wanting to travel from Kiryat Arye to Bat Yam will have to change trains.

On the R1 service between Petah Tikva and Bat Yam there will be six trains in each direction every hour and on R3 from Kiryat Arye to Elifelet four trains each hour, for a total of 10 trains each hour. The average frequency along the Red Line will be a train every six minutes in each direction. On NTA's website it says that the Red Line will have a train in each direction every three minutes, with 18-20 trains every hour.

It is believed that the line will be completed on time in terms of safety, but the price will be in the service, and the journey time is also far longer than planned. Traveling the entire line from end to end is expected to take about 90 minutes instead of 60 minutes.

Estimates are that the main demand is not for journeys from one end of the line to the other, but along the line towards the underground section in Tel Aviv - in this section the trip should take 22 minutes and now it is closer to half an hour. However, this gap is expected to be reduced, because it is an almost automatic underground system.

Every opening of a new railway or light rail line comes with teething problems. During commencement of operations of the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem fast rail link, a large number of the initial journeys had malfunctions. NTA and the Ministry of Transport have explained in the past that the problems causing the many delays in opening the line has been related to the signaling system. But in practice there have also been problems with ticketing and the announcements system.

On top of all these challenges, there will be the behavior of passengers and passers-by in real time, which can also add delays including the discovery of suspicious objects, passengers pulling the emergency brake, scooters trying to overtake the light rail. Even when the light rail in Jerusalem opened, it took some time before it was able to operate according to schedule, after the urban traffic system was able to adapt.

Most expensive infrastructure system ever built

The Tel Aviv light rail Red Line is the most expensive infrastructure project ever built in Israel at an estimated cost of NIS 19 billion. The line is planned to transport 250,000 people daily from Bat Yam via Jaffa and Tel Aviv to Ramat Gan, Bnei Brak and Petah Tikva.

Planning and building the Red line began nearly 20 years ago. In 2007, a franchise agreement was signed, and about two years later it was nationalized due to the difficulties of the tender winner in raising financing. The nationalization resulted in a significant delay and construction work only started in 2015. The line was scheduled to begin operating in October 2021.

NTA then postponed the opening to November 2022, but also failed to meet that deadline. Then it was said that the line would operate in the first quarter of this year, a date that it also did not meet, and the supervising company warned that the actual opening date would be in June.

The State Comptroller's report, published last November, also warned that the deadlines were too tight. The supervising company's doubts were proven correct when integration failures between the various systems and emergency braking as a reaction to the signaling system prevented operations from beginning on time. Although delays and labor pains also exist in other projects in Israel and around the world, in Israel there is a lack of transparency on the issue.

Miri Regev will take the Metro away from NTA

NTA's real challenge now, after failing to meet deadlines, is to bridge as many service gaps as possible. A historic line opened on Independence Day will attract hundreds of thousands of Israelis to travel on it, in large numbers that will make it difficult to provide adequate service.

Transport Minister Miri Regev is eager to move the Metro project out of NTA's hands, and possibly transfer it to Netivei Israel National Transport Infrastructure Co., which is chaired by Yigal Amedi, a close associate of hers. The reason for this is apparently the delays in the projects, but the prevailing opinion in the industry points to the political affinity between the company and the minister in charge. The Economic Arrangements bill, on the other hand, proposes that Israel Railways will lead the Metro project, but that a separate subsidiary would be established for the operation and service of the light rail trains.

NTA said, "The Red Line is in advanced stages towards the transition to stage 7, and finally the light rail will begin operations. During this period, NTA is conducting procedures with the Ministry of Transport to review the overall operating plans, which also includes the number of trains and frequency. Prior to operations, NTA will carry out an extensive public information campaign."

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on February 27, 2023.

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2023.

Tel Aviv light rail credit: Shutterstock
Tel Aviv light rail credit: Shutterstock
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