The Tel Aviv light rail Red Line opened exactly one year ago, promising to start to transform transport, employment, real estate and the entire economy in the Greater Tel Aviv metropolitan region. However, passengers are still skeptical, the trains are slow and urban travel connections are poor. But in commerce and employment the first signs of fundamental change are being seen.
100,000 passengers use the Red Line every day – well below the forecast of 234,000 daily passengers. NTA Metropolitan Mass Transit, which has overseen planning, building and operations says that these low figures were to be expected because it takes time for people to adopt new travel habits, especially during a war. NTA also points out that this is only one of three lines in a network that will now not be completed due to delays until the end of the decade, and subsequently there will be three more Metro underground lines beneath the Greater Tel Aviv metropolitan region.
However, in view of the failure to meet passenger targets, the operator, Egged’s Tevel, is seeking to change the revenue model from being based on the number of passengers to the number of kilometers trains travel.
This situation is backed up by a Ministry of Transport report published in May, which said, “The Red Line is not reaching the passenger levels we expected.” The gap is explained by the slow speed in the Bat Yam area, where the Red Line is not even providing competition for the buses that crawl along the road. The reason for the slowness on this part of the route is the many bends in the road, and the fact that NTA has not yet been able to increase the speed of trains due to the heavy systems installed. After NTA succeeds in increasing the speed, traffic lights will be adjusted to give priority to the train.
Data published by NTA in February, after six months of operations, also provide a similar explanation. 60% of passenger journeys are made in the underground section of the line where the train travels at high speed, with the busiest stations being Allenby and Yehudit in Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion in Bnei Brak.
Another possible reason for low passenger numbers is the Ministry of Transport’s lack of success in setting up a network of bus routes that supports the operation of the line, while shuttle services that municipalities have initiated are not operated with sufficient frequency, so passengers are unable to rely on them. Thus, even though travel speeds can be attractive (except in Bat Yam), door-to-door travel remains long. At the same time, not all municipalities have been able to develop a network of bicycle paths supporting the line, as was completed in March by the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality. Frequency is also insufficient and does not comply with the original operating plan, although progress has been made in this over the past year.
Urban connectivity is lacking
Prof. Karel Martens of the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, says, “We thought the situation was so bad that people would flood the line, but apparently if you have free parking at work and parking at home you survive what happens on the roads in a car. The war, the change in travel patterns due to Covid, as well as the transport policy and urban planning – all these do not provide an alternative
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He adds that besides the fact that the speed and frequency are not good enough, distances between underground stations are long. “This means that the time between door to door is long, because there is a big chance that passengers will have to walk a lot. This also happens with Metros, except that the journey is faster and the frequency is higher. The big question is where the walking is done,” he says.
Prof. Martens is referring to development around the light rail route. For example, the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality has developed the Kiryat boulevard project that has fundamentally changed Menachem Begin and Hamasger Streets at a cost of hundreds of millions of shekels. Sidewalks have been widened, trees planted, bicycle lanes paved and public transport lanes added. But this has not happened in a similar way in other cities. An example of this can be found in the State Comptroller’s 2022 report, which stated that due to a dispute between the Ministry of Finance accountant general and Ramat Gan Municipality, the overhead section between the stations in the city would not be developed.
From the summary of discussions four years ago between NTA and regulators in ministries, it emerged that “There is no agreement between the municipalities (Ramat Gan and Bnei Brak) on development, such as the need for bicycle lanes.”
Problematic planning in terms of pedestrians, together with the lack of investment around the stations, has created significant gaps. In Bat Yam the stations are surrounded by fences that prevent urban pedestrian traffic, in Petah Tikva the train runs between many car lanes, and Jabotinsky Street that passes through Ramat Gan and Bnai Brak remains an imposing interurban highway rather than a pedestrian-friendly urban street.
Prof. Martens says, “Waiting in the middle of a fast road without shade and lots of noise is not an experience that encourages traveling by train. But it can be changed, you can reduce lanes and find solutions for shade, change the urban planning so that there are interesting destinations on the way to the station such as commercial space, businesses, and places of entertainment.”
Real estate
Many studies over the years have found that light rail lines have a positive effect on real estate improvement. Work done for the Ministry of Transport by real estate appraiser Ohad Danos examined the effect of the light rail in Jerusalem on the value of nearby properties. The study focused on three dates: December 2001, with publication the light rail plan for deposit: March 2003, when the plan was approved; and August 2011 when the Jerusalem light rail Red Line began operations. The study found a jump, with increases in value ranging from 14% to 172% over just a decade.” The study found a jump, with increases in real estate values ranging from 14% to 172% over just a decade.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on August 14, 2024.
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