From Sunday the Jerusalem light rail Red Line will not take passengers for five days, as trial runs are made on the full line with the new extensions to Hadassah Ein Kerem in the south and Neve Yaakov in the north. Special bus routes will be offered as alternatives and the frequency of other bus routes will be reinforced.
The existing light rail Red Line between Mount Herzl and Pisgat Zeev will resume operations on February 14, while trial runs will resume on the new sections between Mount Herzl and Hadassah and between Pisgat Zeev and Neve Yaakov. Providing there are no last minute hitches, the full line between Hadassah and Neve Yaakov will open on February 21, “Globes” has learned.
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One delay after another The Red Line extensions in Jerusalem has suffered one delay after another. The line was supposed to open in July 2023, but was postponed several times to November 2023, then to February 2024, and then to November 2024, and is now expected to finally open in February. The delays in the project have been attributed to the difficulty of bringing experts from abroad to Israel during the war, although the delays began even before October 2023.
The planned week-long shutdown for trial runs of the new light rail Red Line section were initially scheduled for last month but were postponed by the police due to lack of manpower to oversee busy junctions. Jerusalem Deputy Police Commissioner Oshrat David told the Globes Infrastructure for the Future Conference earlier this week that although there are now enough workers for the city’s infrastructure projects like the light rail Blue Line, police are holding back progress due to a shortage of manpower to oversee traffic flow.
David added, “NIS 300 million was wasted in the light rail work at the Bar-Ilan intersection in the city, because there are no police to separate the workers and the protesters.” By this she meant the haredi demonstrations against the work at the junction.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on February 6, 2025.
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2025-02-06 09:45:14
