The Jerusalem Light Rail is a light rail system in Jerusalem, Israel. It was inaugurated on September 23, 2011 and runs from Pisgat Ze’ev in the north to Mount Herzl in the south. It was opened on 19 August 2017 and is operated by Egged, Israel’s largest bus company.
The trains are designed to accommodate around 1,400 passengers per train, with space for an additional 600 standing passengers during peak hours.
Jerusalem Light Rail System
The Jerusalem Light Rail has been hailed as one of Israel’s most ambitious infrastructure projects ever undertaken. It is the first and only light rail system in Israel with a length of 27 kilometers.
It was constructed as an alternative to other public transportation systems in the city, such as buses and taxis, and it has been touted as an environmentally friendly public transportation system. The Jerusalem Light Rail operates on electricity, which makes it cleaner than traditional fossil fuel-powered buses or taxis.
The project was initiated in 1992 by then-mayor Teddy Kollek who wanted to improve the accessibility of the Old City of Jerusalem for tourists. The construction of this project took over 10 years to complete because there were many obstacles along the way such as lack of funding and opposition from residents who feared that their homes would be demolished to make
The light rail is a modern transportation system that runs on electricity, which is the main difference between it and other bus systems. The train looks like a tram or trolleybus but it operates on tracks in the middle of the road. The light rail has fewer stops than buses and these stops are located near major attractions and landmarks in Jerusalem.
The Jerusalem Light Rail operates from 5:00 am to midnight every day of the year except for Shabbat (Friday night to Saturday night). The line starts at Mt. Herzl in West Jerusalem, crosses through downtown Jerusalem via Jaffa Road, continues eastward through Talpiot industrial zone to Beit Shemesh Junction near Ben Gurion Airport, where it splits into two branches.
The light rail operates on a single line with 31 stations, of which 15 are underground. It covers a distance of 27 kilometers (17 mi) and has a travel time of 45 minutes from end-to-end, with trains running at intervals of approximately 2 minutes between stations during peak hours and 4 minutes at other times.
You can buy tickets at the ticket machines or from the drivers of the trains themselves. You can also buy tickets online or by phone. Every ticket has a price associated with it, depending on which route you are taking and how far you are traveling on that route.
To buy tickets for the light rail, you can purchase them at one of more than 50 ticket vending machines located at stations or through an app called RavKav.
The railway operates on three lines: Red Line (Jerusalem–Tel Aviv), Blue Line (Jerusalem–West Jerusalem), and Green Line (Jerusalem–Central Bus Station).
The trains run on a 22-kilometre (14 mi) line with 26 stations. The stations are located around the city and it takes about an hour to go from one end of the line to the other.
– Station 1: Jaffa Road,
– Station 2: Shivtei Yisrael Street,
– Station 3: Mamilla Mall,
– Station 4: King George Street,
– Station 5: Mahane Yehuda Market,
– Station 6: Central Bus Terminal
