Despite warnings from an external control company about the delay in launching the red line of the light rail in Gush Dan, Nata's, which is responsible for the project, promises that the opening will take place on November 30. We went out to check what is happening in the field. Keren Zohar In an interview with Israel Today, he promises that there will be no delays in opening the line.
"There is no reason why the line should not open on time," says Zohar, who has been managing the red line project since the Maariv bridge explosion, and recently announced his retirement from MDA only seven months before the launch. "It's a sense of accomplishment." I'm seven and a half years old at NATA, the construction was 99% complete. What is left is mainly the testing period, I have fulfilled my role, "he says.
The red line is covered with great intensity in the media and there are good reasons for this: its opening has been postponed several times while congestion on Israeli roads has become unbearable.
Despite the obvious urgency of opening the red line, the equally important question is whether the light rail will be safe enough.
It will be recalled that the opening of another huge engineering project - the high-speed train line from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, was accompanied by many incidents, due to the enormous pressure exerted by the then Minister of Transportation Israel Katz to launch the line on time.
VP of NATA, Keren Zohar, Photo: Moshe Ben Simhon
Zohar, a graduate of the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the Technion and with 20 years of experience in managing mega-projects, ensures that the line will be safe.
"The whole purpose of the ten months of testing we have already started and will continue until November 30 is mainly safety. Check that the whole system is safe and functional, with fire, with the police, with the Home Front Command, and I am sure they will decide to open the line on November 30 and it will be a safe system. For commercial opening. "
It should be noted that this is one of the most technologically complex projects ever done in Israel.
The red line is the first line to be opened between the three light rail lines planned in the central area, it passes from Petah Tikva through Bnei Brak, Ramat Gan and Tel Aviv to Bat Yam.
"Getting from end to end, that is, from the central station in Petah Tikva to the Bat Yam stadium, will take about half an hour, it will not really solve the traffic jams. What will solve the traffic jams is the mass transit system combined with the purple and green lines and of course the metro Intense, "Zohar explains.
Light rail works in the stock exchange complex (archive), Photo: Dudu Greenspan
The time savings described by Zohar can be up to twice as much, as during rush hour a similar trip takes about an hour.
However, these are estimated travel times because the light rail will also pass over the ground, with in 70% of cases more than 50 junctions the light rail going through a green light.
The price of the trip will probably be NIS 6-7.
The light rail will travel at speeds of up to 80 km / h in the tunnel, and at speeds of up to 50 km / h on the overhead route.
The Allenby station we visited is the most advanced in terms of readiness out of the ten underground stations of the Red Line, numbering a total of 34 stations.
According to Zohar, "the station is 99% ready. There are mostly small cleanings and completion work left and integration and testing operations that all the systems are synchronized together until fully opened."
According to Zohar, the largest station, Carlebach, will be ready last - only in June.
The red line is supposed to serve 70 million trips a year, like the entire Israel Railways at once, which of course will ease traffic jams and allow the population more accessibility to go to work, shopping centers, home, faster, but will not really solve traffic jams.
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