The train between Jerusalem and Ben Gurion Airport will start operating as planned – not sure!
Firefighting and rescue services have not yet approved the opening of the line. For now, security issues remain in the tunnels where the train is supposed to pass and still do not meet the requirements. Israel Railways: “We are all working in accordance with the law, there is no compromise on safety.”
During the inauguration ceremony of the line by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Transport Minister Israel Katz, railway officials and the Ministry of Transport indicated that final approvals for the opening of the line should come on Sunday morning, at the end of the last security forces exercise on the line. But fire service officials stated that “due to Sukkot, it is unlikely that the necessary permits will be received in the coming days.”
Netanyahu stated during the ceremony: “This is a historic moment, I use this term cautiously, but I have always believed that it was possible to connect Jerusalem to a national railway network and soon to Tel Aviv in a record time of half an hour.”
Minister Katz: “This is a historic moment and a day of celebration for Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, a message to the world that we are connecting Jerusalem and Israel, and I hope that hundreds of thousands of people will come to experience this.”
In the coming months, electrical work is expected to be completed in Herzliya. During the first phase of the run, passengers wishing to travel from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv and vice versa will need to book a ticket on the railway website and not at the station (the first three months from Jerusalem will be free). According to the schedules published by Israel Railways, the journey from Jerusalem to Ben Gurion Airport will take 21 minutes.
In the past, it was promised that the journey from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv would take 28 minutes, but we now know that a change must be made at Ben Gurion Airport, and the journey may take 45 minutes or more.
The Ministry of Transport and the Israeli Railways define the line as a “mega project.” The final length between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv is 57 kilometers, some of it in five tunnels and 14 of them on nine bridges. The cost of constructing the line has increased over the years and currently stands at nearly 7 billion NIS. Some of this has been used to build the “Navon” station in Jerusalem, located 80 meters underground and listed among the five deepest stations in the world, which can serve as a nuclear shelter if necessary.
