Netivey Ayalon will publish tenders before the end of 2011 for a Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) in the Sharon region. Minister of Transport Israel Katz says that work will begin in February 2012, and buses will be operating by February 2015.
The first tenders will be for NIS 1 billion of infrastructure work along and beneath the roads along which the buses will run. This figure does not include the cost of procuring large-capacity buses and building bus stops.
The Sharon BRT system will comprise three major lines. The first line will run north of Greater Tel Aviv linking Kfar Saba to Ra'anana and Herzliya. The second and third lines will link these cities to Tel Aviv - one from Kfar Saba via the Moreshet Interchange on the Geha Highway (Road 4), and the other from Ra'anana and Herzliya via the coastal highway (Road 2) and Derekh Namir.
Each bus will be able to carry up to 200 passengers and will run at a frequency of every five minutes (every two and a half minutes on the Kfar Saba Herzliya route) - the largest double length buses currently in service can carry up to 80 passengers.
The BRT system will involve designated bus lanes along all routes and will be based on a system already operating in Jerusalem by the Egged Bus Cooperative Ltd. A similar BRT system will commence operations in Haifa next year by MetroDan, a subsidiary of the Dan Bus Cooperative Ltd.
The Ministry of Transport has released few details about what type of tender will be published but the buses will be accessible to the disabled.
These routes will also feed the Tel Aviv light railway, which is not expected to start operations until 2017, after infrastructure work finally began on he project this week.
Next week, Israel Railways will open a new line from Tel Aviv to Holon, Bat Yam and Rishon Lezion to serve Greater Tel Aviv's southern suburbs.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 22, 2011
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