Red Line (Tel Aviv Light Rail)
Encyclopedia
The red line, will be the first section of a Light rail
Light rail
Light rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...

 system in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...

, known as Tel Aviv Light Rail. The line will run from Bat Yam in the south to Petah Tikva
Petah Tikva
Petah Tikva known as Em HaMoshavot , is a city in the Center District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv.According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2009, the city's population stood at 209,600. The population density is approximately...

 in the northeast with a significant portion of it underground. The total cost of the red line is estimated at NIS 11 billion or, approximately US$3 billion.

Construction

The line is scheduled for partial operation in mid-2016 and for full operation at the end of 2017. Initial construction began in 2007. After its completion, it will be the second underground service in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

, after the Carmelit
Carmelit
The Carmelit is an underground funicular railway in Haifa, Israel. Construction started in 1956 and ended in 1959. The Carmelit was closed in 1986 after showing signs of aging...

, in Haifa
Haifa
Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...

. The line will be a total of 23 km in length, it will have 33 stops, of which 10 are underground. Underground stations will be equipped with platform screen doors
Platform screen doors
Platform screen doors and platform edge doors at train or subway stations screen the platform from the train. They are a relatively new addition to many metro systems around the world, with some platform doors retrofitted rather than installed with the metro system itself. They are widely used in...

 and also trains in the underground section will be operated in automatic train operation
Automatic train operation
Automatic train operation ensures partial or complete automatic train piloting and driverless functions.Most systems elect to maintain a driver to mitigate risks associated with failures or emergencies....

 system.

Preparatory works

To date, NTA, the Government body responsible for the mass-transit development in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area has spent several years performing utility relocation and right-of-way clearing for the railway. The bulk of the of the work however, including underground excavation, is to be carried out by the operator.

On April 10, 2008, works started on the conversion of part of the Jabotinsky Rd. in Petah Tikva
Petah Tikva
Petah Tikva known as Em HaMoshavot , is a city in the Center District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv.According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2009, the city's population stood at 209,600. The population density is approximately...

 into a sunken passage below Kaplan St.

As part of the preparatory works for the line, the main entrance to the Batei HaOsef museum in south Tel Aviv was cleared and relocated. The Bank HaPoalim
Bank Hapoalim
Bank Hapoalim is Israel’s largest bank. As of 31 December 2008 it had total consolidated assets of NIS 306.85 billion. The Bank has a significant presence in global financial markets. In Israel, the Group has over 260 full-service branches, eight regional business centers, and industry desks...

 branch on Herzl Street in the same area was also demolished.

Operator

The concession
Concession (contract)
A concession is a business operated under a contract or license associated with a degree of exclusivity in business within a certain geographical area. For example, sports arenas or public parks may have concession stands. Many department stores contain numerous concessions operated by other...

 to build and operate the Red Line was awarded in December 2006 to the Metropolitan Transportation Solution (MTS) Consortium, which consists of Africa Israel Investments
Africa Israel Investments
Africa Israel Investments Ltd. - AFI GROUP - is an international holding and investment company based in Yehud, Israel.AFI Group consists of several private and public companies active in areas such as real estate, construction, infrastructure, manufacturing, tourism and leisure.The company’s...

, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), Soares da Costa (Portugal), the Egged Bus Cooperative, Siemens
Siemens
Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...

, and the Dutch transportation company HTM.

The concession was a Build Operate Transfer (BOT) contract worth NIS 7.1 billion, the biggest private sector contract ever tendered in Israel's history. MTS' bid was just NIS 400 million under that of rival Metrorail, who bid NIS 7.5 billion.

Financing difficulties

The BOT agreement with the MTS consortium was signed on February 2007 and construction was to start a year later, in February 2008. However, the consortium was unable to secure the necessary financing and was given several extensions to the agreed timetable. The difficulties raising the funding is attributed to the global financial crisis and specifically to the financial problems at Africa Israel Investments
Africa Israel Investments
Africa Israel Investments Ltd. - AFI GROUP - is an international holding and investment company based in Yehud, Israel.AFI Group consists of several private and public companies active in areas such as real estate, construction, infrastructure, manufacturing, tourism and leisure.The company’s...

 Group.
In November 2009, the Israeli government announced that it was considering canceling the agreement with the consortium and granted another extension until March 2010. It was announced that if funding is not secured by then, the government will consider other options for financing the railway, including the option of using public instead of private funding for the project. The deadline was then extended again to summer 2010 and in August the government, after extensive negotiations with MTS failed, finally canceled the MTS concession, though MTS indicated it would appeal the government's decision in arbitration proceeding.

NTA takes over

Following the cancellation of the MTS contract, the government announced that it would fund the construction directly from the Treasury and that NTA would manage subsequent phases of construction. As a result, NTA published a tender for the design of multiple launching shaft
Shaft (civil engineering)
In civil engineering a shaft is an underground vertical or inclined passageway. Shafts are constructed for a number of reasons including:* For the construction of a tunnel* For ventilation of a tunnel or underground structure...

s for the TBM
Tunnel boring machine
A tunnel boring machine also known as a "mole", is a machine used to excavate tunnels with a circular cross section through a variety of soil and rock strata. They can bore through anything from hard rock to sand. Tunnel diameters can range from a metre to almost 16 metres to date...

s that would dig the 11 km of underground tunnels for the railway. In March 2011, the shafts' construction tender was published as well, in addition to a tender for the design of the Kiryat Aryeh depot. The anticipated overall completion date of the railway is 31 December 2017. On December 20, 2010 the transfer of the entire project's management to NTA was approved by the project's arbitrators with MTS.

Route

The Red Line starts at Petah Tikva
Petah Tikva
Petah Tikva known as Em HaMoshavot , is a city in the Center District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv.According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2009, the city's population stood at 209,600. The population density is approximately...

's Central Bus Station, east of Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...

 and follows the Jabotinsky Road (Route 481) westwards at street level. At the point where Jabotinsky Road and Highway 4
Highway 4 (Israel)
Highway 4 is an Israeli highway that runs along Israel's entire coastal plain of the Mediterranean Sea, its route in the north runs from the Rosh HaNikra border crossing with Lebanon until the Erez Border Crossing with the Gaza Strip...

 intersect the line drops into an underground tunnel for 10 km and emerges again to street level just before Jaffa
Jaffa
Jaffa is an ancient port city believed to be one of the oldest in the world. Jaffa was incorporated with Tel Aviv creating the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. Jaffa is famous for its association with the biblical story of the prophet Jonah.-Etymology:...

, where it turns southwards towards Bat Yam.
The underground section will include 10 stations, including an interchange with Israel Railways
Israel Railways
Israel Railways is the principal passenger railway operating company in Israel, and is responsible for all inter-city and suburban rail way passenger and freight traffic in the country. All its lines are standard gauge. The network is centered in Israel's densely populated coastal plain, from...

 services at Tel Aviv Central Railway Station and the nearby 2000 Terminal. A maintenance depot, connected via a branch line and tunnel to the main section of the line, will be constructed in Kiryat Aryeh, across from the existing Kiryat Arye suburban railway station.

A planned southern extension will add 2.8 km (2 mi) into the city of Rishon LeZion and three intermediate stops and an inter-modal terminus which will serve as connection with Israel Railways
Israel Railways
Israel Railways is the principal passenger railway operating company in Israel, and is responsible for all inter-city and suburban rail way passenger and freight traffic in the country. All its lines are standard gauge. The network is centered in Israel's densely populated coastal plain, from...

' Rishon LeZion Moshe Dayan Railway Station
Rishon LeZion Moshe Dayan Railway Station
The Rishon LeZion Moshe Dayan Railway Station is an Israel Railways station in Rishon LeZion. The station is located adjacent to the Moshe Dayan Interchange on the Ayalon Highway. As of September 2011 it serves as the terminus of a new suburban passenger line serving the cities of Holon, Bat Yam,...

and the projected Green Line.

External links

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