Infrastructures C’ttee rejects moving Metro depot from Kfar Saba to Tira

Israel’s National Infrastructures Committee Planning Administration today approved the location of the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Region Metro M1 line depot as deposited. In so doing the committee rejected the recommendation to relocate the depot to the Tira region and as originally planned the line will run from the Holon Junction in the south to Ra’anana and Kfar Saba in the north with the depot in Kfar Saba.

In May 2022 the National Infrastructures Committee Planning Administration decided to split its decision, so that in the first stage only the section of the line between the Holon Junction and Glilot Junction was approved.

On the section discussed today between Glilot Junction and Ra’anana and Kfar Saba many objections and remarks were submitted such as the location of the depot, extending and changing the proposed route of the line. The objections submitted included by residents and landowners in Kfar Saba and the south Sharon region against the location of the depot as erroneous and that it should be cancelled. The objections claimed, together with the Kfar Saba Municipality, the South Hasharon Regional Council, the Tira, Taibe and Kalanswa Municipalities, and the Kokhav Yair-Tzur Yigael Regional Council that the location of the proposed depot in North Kfar Saba should be cancelled and moved to land between the Eyal Interchange and Tira.

The plan’s investigator recommended partly accepting the recommendation and to examine moving the location of the depot to south Tira by extending the line four kilometers northwards. In addition, it had been recommended that if the new location of the depot was to be applied, the National Infrastructures Committee Planning Administration would have to decide on the alternatives.

The investigator cited in her recommendation that the alternative in Tira created an opportunity to expand the transport service to towns in which there were no developed public transport services today while linking up with Road 6 and Israel Railways eastern line. In addition the extension would allow the residents in the northeast of the region to quickly reach employment centers, hospitals, colleges and universities, and create an opportunity for the Arab population in the triangle to integrate into the metropolitan region’s activities.

National Infrastructures Committee: The investigator’s proposal can be implemented without moving the depot

The National Infrastructures Committee Planning Administration said that equal division of resources and transport connections is a worthy consideration but does not justify moving the depot. But it would be a change that means a long and complex procedure that could take several years, and significantly delay the approval of the plan and the ability to implement it when the entire metropolitan urgently needs it.

The committee also noted that the extension of the planning time would directly affect the ability to build the metro in the north of the metropolitan region, thereby harming all the region’s residents, who would be denied an efficient and convenient public transport service for many passengers. Choosing the already deposited alternative would allow receiving this service in a much shorter term, and the significant transport and economic consequences arising from it.

The committee also stated that the reasons on which the investigator based her decision could be achieved even without moving the depot from its location, and instructed the Ministry of Transport to promote a separate plan for extending the northeastern branch of the Metro from Kfar Saba to the eastern railway, while examining the possibility of building another station, to serve all the towns in the area.

The Tel Aviv Metropolitan Region Metro is an underground railway system designed to connect Tel Aviv with Lod, Ramla and Rehovot to the south, Petah Tikva to the east and Ra’anana and Kfar Saba to the north. The underground system will ease traffic congestion on the highways and shorten journey times in the metropolitan region. The estimated cost of the project is NIS 150 billion. The latest decision by the National Infrastructures Committee Planning Administration is an important milestone in that it completes all the required planning approvals for the Metro lines.

NTA Metropolitan Mass Transit System recently signed agreements worth NIS 8 billion with companies planning and managing the project.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on December 25, 2023.

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