🕟 Can you imagine starting a project that takes about 50 years to complete?
🚆 This is the case for the light rail in Tel Aviv metropolitan, Israel. NTA – Metropolitan Mass Transit System, an Israeli governmental company, began working on the first red line in 2009 after beginning plans in the 1970s. It is a 24 kilometers long line with 34 stations, half of which are underground, that will be open in November 2022.
👒 I was delighted to join a tour organized by Rony Bruell from The Israeli Women Environmental Forum, led by Gali Glatt Simhi, VP of innovation and quality at NTA. Our tour took place in the Allenby station (Tel-Aviv), where the construction was recently completed.
💡 Here are a few highlights I have learned on the tour:
⚙️ The test phase for the various operating systems is underway, fingers crossed that the deadline won’t be pushed back again and the official opening in November 2022 will be on schedule.
🧍🏽♀️🧍🏽 A service trial period– where passengers could ride for free on the upper southern segment of the red line is now being considered. Hopefully, a semi-beta version of it will be adopted in order to gain some service and operation insights.
🚃 The expected daily passenger number is around 500,000, with 45 double carriages running every 1.5 minutes during peak hours.
🍱 Mix of uses- all stations can also be used as chemical shelters– just in case…
🎨 There would be no convenient stores, commercials, and no *ART* in the stations. I think convenient stores are, well, convenient and sometimes needed on the fly- hopefully, some constellation would allow them in. I predict that commercials will soon make their way in (too many strong stakeholders’ interests are involved), and I truly hope that municipal and governmental players (some of them I know personally 🤓) will soon recognize the importance of integrating art into the stations.