Former Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli's plan to move the central bus station to the Panorama complex in south Tel Aviv has been rejected. Last October, a ruling was passed against the Ministry of Transport and the Tel Aviv Municipality regarding the Panorama terminal – the parking order issued by the Tel Aviv Municipality was canceled while it was charged, together with the Ministry of Transport, tens of thousands of shekels in expenses.
Now, the Ministry of Transport has announced that in light of the legal complexity and delays that have occurred in relocating the activity of the Central Bus Station to the Panorama complex, additional alternatives are being examined for relocating public transportation activity from the Central Bus Station to alternative complexes.
"Alternatives are being considered." Minister Miri Regev, Photo: Herzi Shapira
Residents of the Neve Ofer, Kiryat Shalom and Tel Kabir neighborhoods fear the consequences of moving the station near their homes: according to data from the Ministry of Health, the morbidity rates of cancer, lung complications and asthma are up to twice as high in Neve Sha'anan (the current station's location) than the urban average in Tel Aviv. In addition, residents of Neve Ofer complain that no one approached them or informed them of the intention to build a central station for the country's largest metropolis right next to their homes.
The municipality's plan, which establishes main transportation complexes, indicates that the plan is to build a future transportation terminal at Holon Junction. In the past, there was also talk of a terminal in Glilot. "Dispersing" the station into several terminals will reduce congestion and pollution, instead of draining into one place.
Buses at the Central Bus Station complex in Israel, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
The issue of evacuating the central bus station was reexamined, as stated, in light of a draft report submitted by the Tel Aviv municipality as part of its response to the Ministry of Environmental Protection's declaration of the central bus station as a center of environmental risk. For the time being, no other place has come up to move the station.
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