78-79 / 108
78
The Metropolitan Jerusalem Master Plan
The Metropolitan Jerusalem Master Plan
79
Today (2016), there is one train line
to Jerusalem. This line travels along the
historical rails by Nahal Soreq, through
Beit Shemesh, where it connects to the
national railways to the center, south, and
north. The rail’s winding route to Beit
Shemesh means that riding this line from
Jerusalem to metropolitan Tel Aviv takes a
very long time and is not usually worth the
while. In parallel, over the next few years
(2018 – 2020), the construction of another
line, on the Tel Aviv-Modiin-Jerusalem
axis, planned to arrive at a station in the
western region of Jerusalem (near today’s
central bus station), will take place. Use of
tunnels and bridges will enable this line to
significantly reduce travel times, making
travel by train more efficient than by bus
for the first time.
But the Jerusalem 5800 Plan, which
examines Jerusalem’s future needs, assumes
that these two lines won’t be sufficient to
cover Jerusalem’s transportation needs,
especially once it becomes a city of public
transportation – making it harder to reach
the metropolis by private vehicle. In light
of this, a number of train lines need to be
added.
This would involve extending the new
train lines, which are planned to arrive at
the entrance to the city, and moving them
to run through a tunnel and arrive at an
underground station which will be located
at the center of the city.
The logic of this is that such a train
line would make direct access to Jerusalem
possible for tourists coming from
metropolitan Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion,
arriving at a location in close proximity to
central tourist attractions in the Old City
and the hotels located in the area. As with
the subway, the tunnel and the station
will need to be dug in bedrock in order to
prevent harming antiquities.
The third train line coming from the
Tel Aviv region will have to be established,
serving the employment center that is to
be built in Atarot. This line – which will be
built along route 443 – will allow people
who live outside metropolitan Jerusalem
to work in Atarot, and will ease their
travel between jobs in Atarot and business
centers in Tel Aviv. Further, this train line
will enable transportation of raw materials
from the Ashdod port to the Atarot
employment center and export goods from
Atarot to Ashdod.
Today there are no trains along the
mountainside – and truthfully, there never
was one to begin with. Assuming political
problems are to be resolved peacefully,
there will be a need for a train line on the
north-to-south axis along the mountain
side. This train line will connect the cities
Nablus, Ramallah, Jerusalem, Hebron,
and Beer Sheba. The advantages of a train
along this axis will be saving time and
the ability to transport large numbers of
people over long distances. Trains running
on this line will arrive at the employment
center at Atarot, enabling people from
The Jerusalem 5800
Plan assumes that
these two lines
won’t be enough to
cover Jerusalem’s
transportation needs
//
The Railway Station
Over a hundred years have passed since the first train traveled from Tel Aviv
to Jerusalem, a future train line will become the main means of transporting
people and goods to and from the metropolis.
Transportation
Prague’s subway system is an example
of an ancient city where a subway
system was dug at great depths, in
order to avoid harming archeological
findings. Trains passing through the
subway tunnels in Prague.
photography:
Shutterstock
a subway at the large employment
center in Atarot. This employment
center, meant to concentrate large
numbers of employees from all
over the city, may have difficulties
taking in the numbers of employees
expected to arrive by light rails
and buses only, and there may be a
need to establish one concentrated
subway line for transportation to
and from Atarot. If and when
the center at Atarot has more than
160,000 people working therein, it
will not be possible to serve the area
without a subway system. At a later
stage – if the numbers of tourists
correlate with expectation – there
will probably be a need to expand
this system. The main area tourists
and pilgrims of all religions will wish
to access – according to the existing
reality in the city today – will be
the Old City and its surroundings.
It is not possible to expand the
existing roads to the Old City and
its surroundings without further,
complicated, expensive, and drawn-
out digging. Any expanding of
existing roads and streets may cause
great harm to the city, ecologically
and environmentally speaking as well.
Further, expanding access
roads and surrounding roads by
the Old City may ease traffic at a
few locations, but not on the scale
needed to take in the millions of
tourists expected to come in the
future. Only a sophisticated system
of mass transport can solve the
access problem surrounding the
Western Wall, the Temple Mount,
and other places in the Old City and
its immediate area. Thus it seems that
in the long run, only a subway will
provide a solution for the transport
of millions of travelers. The subway
route will be dug in the natural
rock, tens of meters underground,
under the layers of antiquities, in
a manner that will ensure no harm
befall any historical sites when
built. Horizontal entrances and
exits will limit harm to the visual
and environmental character of
the Old City and its surroundings.
Access from subway stations to the
hundreds of antiquities and tourist
sites surrounding the city will also be
suited thereto.
The establishment of these few
subway lines must be included in
comprehensive plans for a future
subway system in metropolitan
Jerusalem. There is a big advantage
to such a system, which covers large
parts of the metropolis, and thus it
is important to anticipate potential
needs and plan comprehensively
for the city, implementing gradually
according to need. Routine
development of the above-ground
public transportation system must
also be conducted in a manner that
will allow possible synchronizing
with subway lines in the future.
Transportation