Fast Train Service to Start Between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in September
On Sunday, the Transportation Ministry announced that the fast train between Tel Aviv, Ben Gurion Airport and Jerusalem would start offering overnight services in the next couple of weeks.
New service
According to the announcement, the fast train service will begin operating from September 17th and they will run between Wednesday and Saturday nights once an hour in each direction.
However, the ministry clarified that the service would not be available on Thursday, which is disappointing because it is considered the main evening for nightlife, since it is off the next day.
The ministry stated that this was because there was some maintenance required on the Jerusalem end of the train line.
The fast train would be operational on Thursday night between Ben Gurion Airport and Tel Aviv, where it has regular stops.
The fast train between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv had made its first trip back in December 2019. It had begun in the capital from the Navon Station and gone to south of Tel Aviv at the Hagana station.
In the next few months, additional stops in Tel Aviv had also been added to the route. The direct fast train had been anticipated for a long time.
The project began its operations around 18 years after it had started and it was completed 11 years after its original date of completion.
The benefits
The benefit of the new direct fast train is that it significantly reduces the travel time between the two biggest cities in Israel.
However, there has been some criticism about the time required to reach the platform from the entrance of the station in Jerusalem.
The announcement of operating the fast train could possibly be a move by Merav Michaeli, the Transportation Minister, to resolve the congestion crisis of Israel through the use of public transportation.
Under the current Transportation Minsiter, almost 80% of the budget of the transportation ministry has been spent on sustainable transportation projects and public transport.
In addition, the ministry has also spent 20% of its budget on private vehicle infrastructure.
Other details
Last week, Route 16, which is a new entrance to Jerusalem, had been inaugurated and it is expected to ease traffic significantly in the main entrance.
This would allow people to travel quickly between Route 1 and the southern neighborhoods of Jerusalem.
There are seven bridges and four tunnels that make up the road and it also comprises of about 50,000 acres of territory that has been landscaped recently.
It boasts walking paths, bike paths, observation points as well as picnic spots that overlook the Jerusalem hills.
The problem of traffic accidents can also be resolved with the initiative of the Transportation Minister to focus on public transportation.
The number of traffic accidents has been on the rise and one also occurred on Saturday evening. A 73 year old woman driving a private vehicle lost control of it.
She ended up crashing the vehicle into the gate of Tel Aviv’s HaShalom train station. There were no injuries, but the station suffered extensive damage.
