High-speed Railway To Jerusalem - Planning

Planning

After the suspension of service from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on the old Jaffa–Jerusalem line in 1998 due to the poor track state, an urgent need arose to create a rail link from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Between 2000 and 2001, several alternatives were proposed:

• Plans S and S1 – minor repairs of the old single-track route (S), or one that also includes a few short tunnels and curve straightening (S1).
• Plans G and G1 – a massive repair of the old route, straightening all the curves by excavating numerous long tunnels along the route: 4–6 km of tunnels in G and 16 km in G1. G1 was meant to continue into central Jerusalem and terminate in an underground station at Independence Park.
• Plans B, B1, B2, M and M1 – construction of a new line from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem via Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut within or near Road 443.
• Plans A and A1 – construction of a new line between the cities nearby Highway 1, with a branch to Modi'in. These plans were recommended by the bodies that originally published them (A in 1994 and A1 in 1997 and 2000).

Plans to build a line adjacent to Road 443 were discarded immediately, due to its being inside the West Bank. The Municipality of Jerusalem supported Plan G1, while Israel Railways supported Plan S as a quick deployment plan, followed by A1. On June 13, 2001, Transportation Minister Ephraim Sneh and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon chose to proceed with Israel Railways' plan. One of the reasons was environmentalists' opposition to G1, due to the route passing through the middle of a nature reserve. Plan B2 was used for the branch to Modi'in which was completed in 2008. This section of railway is part of a longer future line which will eventually extend from Modi'in to Rishon LeZion along right-of-way reserved for it during the construction of Highway 431.

Following plan S rehabilitation, trains using the existing railway reach southern Jerusalem in about 80 minutes from Tel Aviv. The expected travel time from Tel Aviv to central Jerusalem on the new high speed railway will be approximately 30 minutes.