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Tel Aviv light railway Green Line route approved
The 10-kilometer section in Tel Aviv will be underground.
Dalia Tal 24 May 05 16:34
The Tel Aviv light railway project is getting underway. The Tel Aviv Regional Planning and Building Board has approved the Green Line, at an estimated cost of $1.8 billion. No decision has yet been made on the date for the publication of tenders.
The 21-kilometer Green Line will run from Herzliya to Rishon LeZion, and will have 32 stations. The 10-kilometer stretch within Tel Aviv will be underground. The Green Line is projected to carry 50 million passengers a year.
Only half of the project has been approved so far: the underground section along Har Zion Blvd. and Carlebach St. in Tel Aviv. The northern section of the Green Line from Carlebach St. to Herzliya, which run beneath Ibn Gvirol St. until Hayarkon St., has not yet been approved.
Opinions regarding the underground sections of the Tel Aviv light railway have been divided. Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai and municipal engineer Danny Kaizer support the underground option. The Ministries of Finance and Transport oppose this, claiming it will raise the cost of the project by $300 million. The cost of building one kilometer of track aboveground is $25 million; below ground, it is $150 million.
Several months ago, NTA Metropolitan Mass Transit System published a tender for building the Red Line, running from Bat Yam to the Beilinson Medical Center campus in Petah Tikva. The $1.5 billion project is due to be completed in 2011. The train will run underneath Jerusalem Blvd. in Jaffa, to Allenby St., then to Arlozorov St., Ramat Gan and Petah Tikva.
Kaizer said the Tel Aviv municipality and environmental organization favored the underground option, which would avoid the need to isolate a ten-meter wide stretch along the city's main streets. The underground option will make Tel Aviv's streets, including Ibn Gvirol, pedestrian-friendly by widening sidewalks and establishing bicycle paths, businesses and gardens, while eliminating sources of traffic pollution.
The Israel Society for the Protection of Nature (ISPN) welcomed the courageous decision to put the Green Line underground, but regretted that the project was divided into two sections, because of an inability to agree on the route along Ibn Gvirol St. ISPN emphasized that besides the light railway plan, the Tel Aviv municipality was also building a huge underground parking garage at Rabin Square.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news -
www.globes.co.il - on May 24, 2005