Minster of Transportation Yisrael Katz has announced that the new high speed train between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem will begin to operate right before Pesach, in 3 months - specifically March 30, 2018 - Erev Pesach.
According to Katz, the first 3 months transportation on the new line will be free when using a rav kav card. The route is 28 minutes between the two cities. The train will fly at a speed of 160kmph, which is almost as fast as the average driver on the highways of Israel when there is no traffic.
Initially the route will be between the train station next to Binyanei Hauma in Jerusalem and the Hagana train station in Tel Aviv. There will be two trains per hour on this route (to start). I don't know if that is two trains in each direction per hour or two trains total, one in each direction.
The second stage will add a second train track and will increase the number of trains to 3 per hour - every 20 minutes a train will leave Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, and vice versa - with the possibility of increasing the routes to 6 per hour when necessary.
The interesting part is Katz's promotion in the announcement, saying that by Pesach we will enable all the people of Israel to ascend in the masses to Jerusalem via the high speed train from Tel Aviv. We are connecting and strengthening the capital, Jerusalem, and connecting to the history of Jerusalem.
I say interesting because Katz did not speak about connecting Jerusalem to the central region, making it easier for people to get to work or tourism. He did not talk about other benefits of the train bringing people to work in Jerusalem, possibly creating more expansion of business, more tourism, other financial benefits to the country or to those specific cities. He spoke about bringing people to Jerusalem, helping them connect to Jerusalem and the history. He spoke about them coming to Jerusalem to visit on Pesach and be a part of the holiday in Jerusalem.
There are a lot of benefits to the new train. Katz focused on the most Jewish of them.
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