Tel Aviv 10 minute Airport Train

[daveklepper]

The direct Tel Aviv - Ben Gurion (Lod) Airport line was opened yesterday, 10 October. Evenings and nights Danish Flexiliners are used to reduce noise. Daytime sees push-pull Altsom diesels (GM engines) with double-deck cars and cab-hotel power cars nearly identicle to those used in Germany. Almost all trains run through to Haifa or Naharia in the North. Running time from the center of Tel Aviv (Haganah Station) iis ten minutes. Jerusalem, the Capitol City, remains without any rail service and the condition of the 104-year old architecturally significant station remains a real national disgrace.

The direct line is really an ego trip for the railways management. There was and may still be a freight line by a route twice as long that could have been rebuilt for about one tenth the cost and the money saved used to restore the original 1892 (originally narrow gauge, standard gauged by the British after WWI), line to Jerusalem with the Airport.

The new direct line is supposed to be extended to Mod'in (home of the Macabees) in 2005 or 2006. This will effectively make Mod'in more of a suburb of Tel Aviv than of Jerusalem, which has already been done with Beit Shemish (British called this Hartuv Junction), since the orginal line from Lod has been retored just that far, and the road the buses use from Beit Shemi***o Jerusalem is part way a crowded hilly curvey two lane road, nice for a sports car but not very good for commuting.

The bright note for Jerusalem is that work for preparations for the first light rail route continue on track. My own efforts are to try to get the light rail people to take over the line to Beit Shemish and restore it independently of the Railways to give Beit Shemish residents and people between the Jerusalem Zoo, the big shopping mall, and the railway station a better commute into Jerusalem.

The new Municipal adminstration has also greatly expanded the franchises of both the Egged bus cooperative and the Arab sector independent bus lines to get people to use public transportation more. The Arab buses are now new and well maintained, not second hand relics like when I moved here 8-1/2 years ago. The Egged's are mostly low-floor MAN's, quieter than the Mercedes buses they are replacing. The first light rail line is supposed to open in 2006, and the car design looks like one of the typical new low-floor European city trams. There is a controversy about putting the first line in a tunnel or a bridge at the "entrance to the city from the west" at the main and very large bus terminal, which is a shopping and office "palace" in its own right, right at a very complex highway junction. The bridge has been designed, , but nearby hotel owners and some residents are uposing its construction. The tunnel proposal was negated by claims that the LRV's could not climb the ramps, but this can be taken care of by changing to a design that has power on all wheels.[#welcome][#welcome][#welcome]

[Anonymous]

Excellent news - I was really impressed by Israeli Railways around 2 years ago other than the fact that the trains go nowhere near the centres of the towns - see Ashdod for an example

I had a run from Tel Aviv to Ashdod and then Haifa and return.

Most enjoyable

Kev

[daveklepper]

The new Beir Sheva station is in the center of town. Tel Aviv isn't bad, it is about a 20 minute walk from either the Shalom Station or Haganah to the beach in a direct line. The Haifa Bat Gallin station, which is really the main station with bus terminal adjacent is on the south side of the city, but the old Merkaz or Central station is close to the main shopping and business area, as well as the underground funicular "Carmelit", also worth a visit. Six stations symmentrically arranged with one track and a passing siding in the middle and the two trains operated on the counterbalance principle. I think if I remember that one train has wheel flanges on the outside of the guidance wheels and one conventionally (support wheels rubber tires like Paris Metro) and the frogs and points at the switches to the siding permanent so one train always takes the southern track and one the northern. Three stepped cars per train, pemenantly coupled. The impression is like mineature modern Paris Metro, and it was built by a French company and operated by them for many years. Then it was taken over by Egged, (national bus cooperative and local operator in Haifa and Jerusalem) and now I think it is run by the city.

[Anonymous]

I pray to G-d that this does not become a terrorist target,,,,The doorbell just run...Its the FBI.."Do you want Coffee Gentlemen?"

[martin.knoepfel]

@dave

the switch design you describe is common to all funiculars I know - if they have two trains. it saves movable parts on the switches. before this design was developed, funiculars used to have double track or at least three tracks - both cars sharing the center track - except for the siding where they meet .