Minister of Transport Miri Regev has announced at a press conference that the Tel Aviv light rail Red Line will begin operating on Independence Day, April 26, 2023.
Regev said, "I sat with NTA for a wide ranging discussion and there are issues that were not the only problems that caused the delay, and I hope that after Independence Day the Red Line will be operational. And if not, my policy has been made clear to them as well, that I will not continue with the agenda as it is. After Independence Day, if you don't operate it, you will find out what I plan to do."
The Tel Aviv light rail Red Line, which runs from Bat Yam, Jaffa and Tel Aviv via Ramat Gan and Bnai Brak to Petah Tikva was supposed to begin operations in October 2021. But the start of operations was postponed until November 2022 and then until the first quarter of 2023. The company supervising the opening of the Red Line had warned that it might not start operating until June 2023 but NTA did not accept its findings and the Ministry of Transport had until today refused to commit to a date.
The opening of the Red Line was delayed because of defects in the signaling system, which was first reported by "Globes." In the State Comptrollers report published last November a range of faults by NTA were listed, which led to the delays, together with estimates that the line would not be opened on the promised date due to too short a time allocated for testing procedures - estimates that turned out to be correct.
Channel 12 News reporter Gal Chen has said that Regev is considering transferring the Metro project from NTA to another company, possibly Netivei Israel National Transport Infrastructure Co., which is chaired by Yigal Amedi, a close associate of Regev. In the draft law of arrangements, it was proposed to split the light rail service from NTA and leave bid their construction and the construction of the planned metro system. In the draft Economic Arrangements Law, it is proposed to spin off from the NTA servicing the light rail but leaving it with construction of the planned Metro system.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on February 7, 2023.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2023.