The Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area Mass-Transit System is a long planned mass transit system for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. The system will include different types of rapid transit like light rail (Which will run as subway in some lines), bus and more.
Work on the Red Line, the first in the project, started on September 21, 2011, following years of preparatory works and numerous delays.[1]
Contents |
The first proposals for a tramway in the area were made by the Lebanese engineer George Franjieh in November 1892, about nine weeks after the inauguration of the Jaffa–Jerusalem railway. The plan called for a main line between southern and northeastern Jaffa, with spurs to the harbor and the eastern orchards. The plan was considered uneconomical and was shelved. A later plan called for a light railway from Jaffa to the nearby settlements of Rishon LeZion, Petah Tikva and Wilhelma.[2]
A Decauville light railway was built in Jaffa and Tel Aviv in World War I, connecting the port with the Yarkon River. It was used for about a decade after the war, and dismantled at a later date.
A subway system was first planned in the mid-1960s, and in 1967 a station at the Shalom Meir Tower was inaugurated in the presence of then Prime Minister Levi Eshkol. However, financial difficulties forced the abandonment of the project, and Shalom Meir remains the only subway station in Tel Aviv, disconnected from other transport links.
In 2000, the plan for a subway was changed to one for light rail, and more plausible plans for a mass transit system in Tel Aviv were unveiled. Today, the first 22 kilometres (14 mi) Red Line has already been approved, with excavation due to begin in late 2009. The Red Line was expected to become operational in Q1 2014.
In December 2006, the MTS group officially was awarded a BOT contract for the Red Line of the light rail, by which they are to build and operate the line for its first 32 years. MTS consists of Africa Israel, Siemens of Germany, the Egged Bus Cooperative, Chinese infrastructure company CCECC, the Portuguese infrastructure firm Soares da Costa, and the leading Dutch transportation company HTM.[3]
After many years of delays due to MTS financing issues, in December 2010 the government revoked MTS' concession and nationalized the project, putting it under the authority of NTA, the government agency which was in charge with overseeing the overall development of the rapid transit system in the Tel Aviv metro area. [4]
A significant portion of the Tel Aviv Light Rail will be underground, so Tel Aviv may be viewed as the fifth city in the Middle East to boast a subway system. Haifa was first with the Carmelit in 1959, while Cairo's system opened in 1987 and Tehran Metro opened in 1999 and Dubai's metro was the fourth when it opened in 2009.
The blueprint includes seven lines: two in planning stages, one under approval, one under construction, and three more are planned for the future. The first four lines will cover 100 km (62 mi) around the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, with future plans to BRT lines and feeders in addition.[5]
| Line | Length | Status | Open Date | Primary Cities |
Terminals | No. Stations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red Line | 22 km (14 mi) | Under Construction | 2016-2017 est. | Petah Tikva, Bnei Brak, Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Bat Yam | Petah Tikva Bus Terminal ● Kiryat Aryeh Depot (Petah Tikva) Nisenboim (Bat Yam) |
33 (10 underground) |
| Green Line[6] | 24 km (15 mi) | Approval | Unknown | Herzliya, Tel Aviv, Holon, Rishon LeZion | Herzliya Pituah ● Tel Aviv University Holon Depot ● Moshe Dayan (Rishon LeZion) |
24 |
| Purple Line[7] | 36 km (22 mi) | Early Plans | Unknown | Yehud, Or Yehuda, Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv, Kiryat Ono, Giv'at Shmuel, Petah Tikva | Mohaliver (Yehud) ● Sgula (Petah Tikva) Arlozorov (Tel Aviv) |
56[8] |
| Blue Line[9] | Unknown | Early Plans | Unknown | Rehovot, Nes Ziona, Rishon LeZion | Rishon LeZion Center ● Mikve Israel Holon Junction ● Bilu Junction |
Unknown |
| Yellow Line[10] | 18 km (11 mi) | Early Plans | Unknown | Ra'anana, Kfar Sava, Hod HaSharon, Herzliya, Ramat HaSharon, Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv, Holon | Tshernihovsky (Kfar Sava) ● Raoul Wallenberg (Tel Aviv) Sokolov (Herzliya) ● Hod HaSharon |
Unknown |
| Brown Line[11] | Unknown | Early Plans | Unknown | Ramle - Rishon LeZion | Ramle ● Rishon Lezion Center | Unknown |
| Pink Line[12] | Unknown | Early Plans | Unknown | Kfar Sava, Ra'anana, Herzliya | Ra'anana South ● Herzliya | Unknown |
About 10 kilometres (6 mi) of the 22 kilometres (14 mi) Red Line is to be built underground, with the remaining overground segment constructed in as a light rail/tram. It is to have 33 stops, 10 of which would be underground, with an average distance of 500 metres between them. The average distance between the overground stops would be 1 km. The line would run from Bat Yam in the southwest, through Jaffa and central Tel Aviv, and carry on to Petah Tikva, through Ramat Gan and Bnei Brak. An interchange is planned for Tel Aviv Central railway station. It has been forecast that by 2020, 100 million people would be using this line annually.
Stations (underground in italics): Nissenbaum, HaAmal, Kaf Tet BeNovember, Yoseftal, Bar Ilan, Balfour, Jabotinsky, Rothschild, HaAztmaut, Machrozet, HaBaashat, Issakov, Erlich, Ben Tzvi, Salame, Elifelet, Allenby, Carlebach, Yehudit, Shaul HaMelech, Arlozorov, Abba Hillel, Bialik, Ben Gurion, Aharonowitz. From Aharonowitz, one branch continues to Shenkar, Rabin, Beilinson, Dankner, Orlov, Pinsker, Petah Tikva Central Bus Station (Terminal); another continues to Em HaMoshavot and the Kiryat Aryeh Maintenance Depot.
The second or Green Line, in the approval phase, is a 24 kilometres (15 mi) line that would run from the west of Rishon LeZion northwards through Holon to central Tel Aviv. Only its Tel Aviv segment would be underground. Expected annual passenger forecast is 50 million by 2020. A proposed extension of the line would run underground through central Tel Aviv's Ibn Gabirol Street to the northern neighbourhoods and the Yarkon River.
Stations (underground in italics): Carlebach, HaRakevet, Levinsky, Har Tzion, Kibbutz Galuyot, Abu Kabir, Gitit, Tzomet Holon, Kugel, Sokolov. From Sokolov, one branch continues to HaHistadrut, Golda Meir, Barkat, Menachem Begin, Moshe Dayan, Holon Darom, Kenyon HaZahav, Rishon LeZion; another continues to Krause, Serlin, Geulim, Betzalel, HaMelacha, Mifratz Shlomo, HaMerkava, and the Holon Maintenance Depot.
The third, or Purple Line, also in the planning phase, is envisaged as a 36 kilometres (22 mi) line with 56 stops and will connect Petah Tikva Sgula to Sheba Hospital through Giv'at Shmuel and Kiryat Ono, and will connect Arlozorov in Tel Aviv to Yehud and Or Yehuda through Ramat Gan
The fourth, or Yellow Line is in the planning phases. It would be a mostly overground tram line, 24 kilometres (15 mi) in length, connecting Kfar Sava and Tel Aviv via Ra'anana, Herzliya and Ramat HaSharon. A possible extension of this line would run alongside the coastline of Tel Aviv, as an underground system, and connect to the Red Line in the Rothschild Boulevard area.
The fifth, or Blue Line, is the first line of the BRT system and the first line not to pass via Tel Aviv. The line will begin in Rehovot and continue to HaRishonim Railway Station in Rishon LeZion via Ness Ziona and end at the Holon junction.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
