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It's difficult on the way to the light rail: the opening of the red line will be postponed once more Israel today

2022-09-28T19:59:31.130Z


The Red Line was supposed to open on November 30, as promised by the deputy director general of NATA • Despite the promise, the opening was postponed again until next year • A former senior official at the Ministry of Infrastructure: "It was obvious, they kept it out of the public's attention on purpose"


The opening of the red line of the light rail in Gush Dan will probably be postponed again.

According to estimates from those close to the project, there may be a delay of several weeks in the commercial opening, although the NTA, the government company carrying out the project, refuses to comment on the claim.

The company says that they are now awaiting the results of Alstom's tests regarding the signaling system.

"According to the test results, we can estimate if the opening will be delayed and by how much."

In any case, the test will also have to pass the approval of the Gentile Committee."

The red line will only open next year, photo: Yehoshua Yosef

Five months ago, the deputy CEO of the NTA company at the time, Keren Zohar, promised in an interview to "Israel Hayom" that there would be no delays in the opening of the Red Line and that it would open on the planned date, November 30.

This, despite the warnings published even then by an external control company against the delay in launching the line.

Recently we hear a lot about the opening of the red line, which has already been postponed several times while the congestion on Israel's roads has become unbearable.


Despite the obvious urgency of opening the line, the no less important question is whether the light rail will be safe enough.


Let's recall that the opening of another huge engineering project, the high-speed train line from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, was accompanied by quite a few mishaps, due to the tremendous pressure exerted by the Minister of Transportation at the time, Israel Katz, to launch the line on time.

NTA company. Waiting for test results. Photo: Moshe Shai,

It is important to note that this is one of the most technologically complex projects ever done in Israel.

The red line is the first line to be opened among the three light rail lines that are planned in the central area, it runs from Petah Tikva through Bnei Brak, Ramat Gan and Tel Aviv to Bat Yam.

The red line connects five municipalities: Petah Tikva, Bnei Brak, Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv-Yafo and Bat Yam. There will be approximately 34 stations, ten of which will be underground.

The distance between the ground stations is about 500 meters, and the distance between the underground stations is about one kilometer.

The rest of the lines in Gush Dan are in the early stages of construction and it will take years before they are ready.

The green line and the purple line will only be ready in 2026-2027.

According to a former senior official in the infrastructure market: "There is no chance that the opening won't be postponed. It was known all along, they just didn't admit it. Once the tender is split into work packages, the most critical part is the integration and unfortunately it doesn't work here."

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Source: israelhayom

All news articles on 2022-09-28

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