Tel Aviv Light Rail finally inaugurates

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Rover

Rover

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I 24 news



The highly anticipated Tel Aviv light rail is officially open for business, traveling 15 miles through 5 major cities. A project 2 decades in the making is still underway, with a total of 139 stations set to be completed by 2028. i24NEWS Middle East Correspondent Pia Steckelbach takes us on a trip/
 
For overall context, here is the Wikipedia article on it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tel_Aviv_Light_Rail
The area that I used to frequent on work when I used to visit Israel often, is covered by the Purple Line, near its Southern Branch terminus in Yehud. At the start of my frequent trips to Israel, the office that I visited was in Or yehuda, but then the organization there moved to the big new HP site in Yehud. Unfortunately though, that location, which is still there, much smaller, but still there, is not conveniently near the LRT line.
 
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Here is an excellent video exploring areas around part of the Red Line. Lots of familiar places.



Of rail interest is the visit to the old Jaffa Station which is now a tourist spot.

The system is very impressive, the underground stations appear to be much grander than any on the NY Subway.

The area around the Elifelet, Allenby and Carlabach stations are very familiar. They were short walks from the hotels that I used to stay in on Hayarkon St by the beach.
 
Rover said:
I 24 news



The highly anticipated Tel Aviv light rail is officially open for business, traveling 15 miles through 5 major cities. A project 2 decades in the making is still underway, with a total of 139 stations set to be completed by 2028. i24NEWS Middle East Correspondent Pia Steckelbach takes us on a trip/
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Telaveevees? Is that like Telatubbies? 😁
 
Naturally, given that this is in Israel :) , there has to be some controversy:

https://www.jta.org/2023/08/17/isra...-system-is-finally-opening-but-not-on-shabbat
The controversy mostly revolves around whether the system will operate on Shabbat (Friday night and Saturday). The previous administration had promised that it would run on Shabat, but the current administration, in which the religious parties have a much stronger role, has reversed that decision. Also, while most public transit in Israel runs on Saturday evening, after Shabbat is over, the light rail will only run for 45 minutes, which is much shorter than what happens in other Israeli cities. Some believe that the short hours on Saturday evenings are to discourage attendance at what has turned out to be regular Saturday-night demonstrations against the current government.

There is also some concern that the capacity might not be enough to handle the expected ridership, and that there could be some chaos involved. The head of the transit agency is basically hoping things will work out:

“We also hope that the public will start acting like Europeans,” he said, noting that European capitals like London and Paris that have very busy train systems are “organized” nonetheless.

“We want people on the platform to wait for passengers to get off the train first before they try to get on.”
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It's been a while since I've been in Israel, but, let's just say that although a large percentage of the population is of European heritage, they are not Europeans :) and they make New Yorkers look like laid back genteel folk from the Southern United States. I may have to make a trip to check this system out. The last time I rode any kind of Israeli rail service, it was back in 1972, and it looked the railroads were on the way out. Things have sure changed since then.
 
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MARC Rider said:
Naturally, given that this is in Israel :) , there has to be some controversy:


There is also some concern that the capacity might not be enough to handle the expected ridership, and that there could be some chaos involved. The head of the transit agency is basically hoping things will work out:



It's been a while since I've been in Israel, but, let's just say that although a large percentage of the population is of European heritage, they are not Europeans :) and they make New Yorkers look like laid back genteel folk from the Southern United States. I may have to make a trip to check this system out. The last time I rode any kind of Israeli rail service, it was back in 1972, and it looked the railroads were on the way out. Things have sure changed since then.
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Perhaps a better society to emulate would be that of Japan. On my two visits to there, I was amazed at the civility displayed by those people, despite Tokyo being one of the most crowded places in the world...the way that they formed queue's to board commuter trains on the platforms, before the train even entered the station, standing right at the spot next to where their assigned cars would stop was very impressive...
 
MARC Rider said:
It does help that the platforms are marked to show where to stand and that the train drivers know how to stop the train so that the doors line up to the marks on the platform.
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At least some of the underground stations in the Tel Aviv system have half height or full height screen doors on the platform. Overground stations along street curbs of course do not have any such.
 
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