The future light rail lines, when the NTA also promised to open the red line in 2022/NTA
On the NTA website, the government company that designed and built the light rail in Gush Dan, there is still the promise that the Red Line, the first of the three lines, will transport 234,000 people every day. , only about 70,000 people travel on it every day.
In fact, this is even a decrease compared to the first months of operation, when the number reached about 110,000 people a day. Like the rest of public transportation, there was a plunge in the number of passengers on the line immediately after October 7, when alongside a decrease In terms of demand, the frequency of travel has been dramatically affected due to a lack of drivers and inspectors recruited into the reserves.
However, while the number of passengers on the bus lines and Israel Railways has returned in recent weeks to the level before the war, the number of passengers on the Red Line is increasing much more slowly, and only about two weeks ago it crossed the 65,000 daily mark This is despite the fact that the frequency has returned to the original one, and at the same time the travel time along the entire line has been shortened by 4 minutes, by shortening the time the train stays at the stations.
Internal data shows that the decrease is felt throughout the hours of the day and at all stations, and there is no change in the busier parts, and in the busier stations , all adjacent to employment complexes: Abba Hillel in Ramat Gan (the stock exchange complex and Shenkar College), Ben Gurion on the border of Ramat Gan and Bnei Brak (BSR towers and the Trinity camp) and Yehudit Station in Tel Aviv (closest to the pedestrian bridge over Ayalon leading to the series of office towers on Yigal Alon St.).
Haim Glick, CEO of NTA, and Minister of Transportation Miri Regev on a tour of the Red Line/Reuven Castro
The NTA and the Ministry of Transportation are currently examining what caused the drop and the large deviation from the predicted number of passengers, on the basis of which the expensive project was built, and the Tevel company owned by Egged and the Chinese CCECC approached it. The large gap hurts Tevel's business plan.
The industry identifies several main causes of failure:
travel times Slow on the overhead part of the line:
Most users of the line use its underground part, which is significantly faster. Travel times on the above-ground part, mainly between the Elifelt station on the border of Tel Aviv and Jaffa, to its southernmost station Kommiam in Bat Yam, are slow due to a winding line and the lack of precedence at traffic lights, Even half a year after the opening. The travel speed in this section is 15 km/h and the Mobit app still recommends that even passengers traveling directly between Kommiat and Eliphalet take a bus between the two stations to get there faster.
The result: passengers from Bat Yam and parts of Mashal'at and Holon who might have used the light rail are prevented from doing so.
NTA has promised that after measuring the true travel times between the stations, the traffic lights will be adjusted so that the trains will not be delayed at intersections.
Recently, Haim Glick, the retiring CEO of the NTA, Haim Glick, promised in a lecture at the Technion that such an update would be carried out at the beginning of March.
However, the company officially refuses to commit to this.
Lack of bus lines that will feed the line with passengers:
there are no fast shuttles from the cities of Sharon to Segola station, for example, where the red line begins and can be used by many as a gateway to Bnei Brak, Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv and Bat Yam, which would be a fast route that bypasses traffic jams during rush hours.
There are also no campaigns by the Public Transportation Authority to encourage passengers to use the existing lines.
The delay in establishing the additional lines and creating a train network:
the red line functions as a single line, and the green and purple lines are still far from complete, so the coverage provided by the light rail to the demand centers in Gush Dan is limited.
As revealed in Walla Car, Glick admitted that the opening of both will be delayed by at least a year: the purple line, from Yehud Monoson, Or Yehuda and Givat Shmuel to the center of Tel Aviv will open only in March 2028 and the green line from Holon and Rasheltz to Herzliya only a year later, in March 2029. On its website, Israel promises the opening of the lines in 2028 and 2027, respectively. This is when it currently appears that the opening will be further delayed due to the current shortage of infrastructure workers due to the war, which caused foreign experts to leave the country, and the shortage of workers due to the ban on the entry of Palestinians from Judea and Samaria and the promises to bring in foreign workers in their place, which are not being realized.
The line was built according to a plan that is almost 30 years old:
at the time the Red Line was planned, the center of Tel Aviv was an important center of employment and commerce. Since then, the centers in Rishon Lezion and Herzliya have developed, and only the Green Line will answer this at the end of the decade. In retrospect, a line One that would connect Herzliya to Shaletz via Tel Aviv and Holon would have been more urgent to build.
As revealed in Globes, funding for a plan to extend the Red Line to Shallat worth one billion shekels was diverted by Minister of Transportation Miri Regev to the construction of roads. The Ministry of Transportation claimed that the decision would not delay the extension, but refused to commit to a date for the completion of the works. And now it is unclear if and when funding will be found for this .
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Despite NTA's promises to improve the speed in the still slow section/Wala! system, NTA
A NTA official said this week that "shortly after the opening of the train, the holidays began and during them the war broke out, therefore it is not clear whether 70 thousand passengers is a decrease or the norm now.
During the opening period of the train, we reached 110,000 trips, but it is clear to us that some of them are not regular passengers but curious ones who came to experience the light rail.
We will need to travel for a long time in Shigra to formulate a position on the matter.
We are working to increase travel with the assistance of the Ministry of Transportation by changing routes, advertising, and more."
Regarding the improvement of travel times between Tel Aviv and Bat Yam, the NTA says that "These days, an extensive review is being done on all aspects of shortening the travel time. If by increasing the speed, a temporary shortening Waiting at stations and other measures. As soon as there is a change in the travel time, this will require a recalibration of the traffic lights since the travel time between traffic lights will change. The system is still being studied, the drivers are still gaining skill, all the systems are being tested and studied in order to identify the weak points."
More on the same topic:
the red line
The light rail in Gush Dan