In 2020, in her first term as minister of transport, Miri Regev came to Rishon LeZion. Alongside the mayor, Raz Kinstlich, she inaugurated a new bicycle path, part of Ofanidan, the Greater Tel Aviv bicycle path network. At the ceremony, the residents of Rishon LeZion were given the good news that the Red Line of the Tel Aviv Light Rail would be extended to reach the city.
But two months after the ribbon was cut, the bulldozers came and destroyed the bicycle path for the construction of the Green Line of the Light Rail, and an alternative path is being paved at a very slow pace.
Now, the promise made at the inauguration ceremony has met a similar fate. In the budget discussions, the same Regev, now enjoying a second term as transport minister, chose to divert NIS 1 billion earmarked to finance the extension of the Red Line from Bat Yam to Rishon LeZion to a five-year, NIS 26 billion road building plan.
The Red Line is due to start operating at the end of this month, but there are those who estimate that the opening date will be pushed back to June. The line starts at Petah Tikva, and runs via Bnei Brak, Ramat Gan and Tel Aviv-Yafo, terminating at Bat Yam. The cost of construction is put at NIS 18.7 billion, and the opening will come after years of delays.
In the past, the Ministry of Transport allocated NIS 100 million for the detailed planning of the extension of the line from Bat Yam to Rishon LeZion and of the construction of four additional stations along the extension. The final station was to have been constructed next to the Israel Railways station on Moshe Dayan Street in the west of the city, and a transport hub was planned for the site linking the railway with the extended Red Line, the Green Line, and the Brown Line, which is planned to operate as a system similar to the Metronit in Haifa, running from Ramla and Lod to Rishon LeZion. All this is in addition to the Metro planned for Tel Aviv.
The extension of the Red Line was meant to provide public transport to the new 1000 complex in West Rishon LeZion, which, according to the project’s website, will comprise workplaces for 100,000 people and housing for 22,000 residents in 5,500 housing units and 1.7 million square meters of industrial, commercial and office space. The extension was also intended to connect Rishon LeZion with Bat Yam. Even without the Red Line extension, though,future lines of the Light Rail will provide access to the 1000 site.
Against the advantages of rapid, efficient public transport to the south of the Greater Tel Aviv metropolis and a transport hub connecting several different lines, various reasons were put forward for diversion of the budget, among them the question of the ability of NTA, the company responsible for construction of the Light Rail system, to deal with the extension of the Red Line in addition to the Green and Purple lines and the Metro project, when it has failed to meet timetables and budgets in all the projects it has managed. The diversion of NIS 1 billion from its budget indicates a lack of confidence in the company on the part of government ministries, besides which Regev is believed to harbor political animosity towards the company.
In addition, for all the advantages of the Red Line extension, the budget already includes considerable investment in the area, and the Blue and Brown lines have been fully budgeted.
The reasons for the move may sound logical, but the result is that the sum of NIS 1 billion has been diverted from a mature project, the detailed planning of which is due to be completed next month. The project is being halted with a screeching of brakes, and the diversion of the budget to a five-year road building plan indicates a controversial order of priorities.
This is not the only abandonment of a public transport project in the state budget. NIS 1 billion has been cut from a budget of NIS 6 billion for constructing priority lanes for buses in cities. That NIS 1 billion too will be transferred to the road building plan. This diversion of funds, however, is conditional on other budget balances being used up, and at present there are not enough public transport lane projects to utilize this amount.
The NIS 26 billion five-year road plan includes the construction of new inter-city roads and of interchanges, lane widening, and construction of public transport priority lanes. Many of the planned projects are in Judea and Samaria. NIS 1 billion is allocated to infrastructure in Arab towns and villages, and NIS 3 billion is for extending Road 6 northwards.
The general view is that the Red Line extension will not be cancelled, but will be deferred and budgeted later on. Past experience shows, however, that removal of a project from the state budget makes it very uncertain, as recent governments have not served out their full terms, and if they have succeeded in passing a budget, it has been an isolated event, and there is no certainty about the timing and content of the next budget.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on May 2, 2023.
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