Passengers shun Tel Aviv light rail

The Tel Aviv Light Rail Red Line opened exactly one year ago, promising to transform transportation, employment, real estate and the entire economy of the greater Tel Aviv area. Yet commuters remain skeptical, trains are slow and urban transport is weak. But in commerce and employment, we are seeing the first signs of radical change.

The Red Line is used by 100,000 passengers a day — far below the projected 234,000. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which oversaw planning, construction and operations, says the low numbers were expected because it takes time for people to adopt new travel habits, especially during wartime. The MTA also points out that this is one of only three lines in a network that will now be delayed until the end of the decade, meaning there will be three more subway lines under the greater Tel Aviv area.

However, due to the failure to meet passenger targets, Egged’s subsidiary Tevel, the train operator, is seeking to change its revenue model from passenger numbers to kilometres travelled.

This situation is supported by a report issued by the Transportation Ministry in May, which stated that “the Red Line is not reaching the passenger levels we expected.” This discrepancy is explained by the slow speed in the Bat Yam area, where the Red Line does not even compete with the buses crawling along the route. The reason for the slow pace on this part of the route is the many curves in the road, and the fact that the Transportation Authority has not yet been able to increase the speed of the trains due to the heavy systems installed. After the Transportation Authority succeeds in increasing the speed, the traffic lights will be adjusted to give priority to the train.

Data published by the National Transportation Authority in February, six months into operations, offers a similar explanation. Sixty percent of passenger trips take place on the underground section of the line where the train travels at high speed, with the busiest stations being Allenby and Yehudit in Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion in Bnei Brak.

Another possible reason for the low ridership is that the Ministry of Transportation has failed to establish a network of bus routes to support the line, while the shuttle services that municipalities have started are not operating at a sufficient frequency and therefore passengers cannot rely on them. Thus, while travel speeds may be attractive (except in Bat Yam), door-to-door travel remains long. At the same time, not all municipalities have been able to develop a network of bicycle paths to support the line, as the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality completed in March. The frequency of trips is also insufficient and does not match the original operating plan, despite progress made in this area over the past year.

Urban connectivity is not available.

“We thought the situation was so bad that people would flock to the line, but it turns out that if you have free parking at work and parking at home, you survive what happens on the roads in the car,” says Professor Karl Martens of the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. “The war, the change in travel patterns due to Covid, as well as transportation policy and urban planning – all of this does not provide an alternative.”

Besides the fact that the speed and frequency are not good enough, he adds, the distances between metro stations are long. “This means that the time between door to door is long, because there is a high probability that passengers will have to walk a lot. This also happens with the metro, except that the journey is faster and the frequency is higher. The big question is where to walk,” he says.

Professor Martens points to developments around the light rail route. For example, the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality developed the Kiryat Street project, which radically changed Menachem Begin and Hamasger streets at a cost of hundreds of millions of shekels. Sidewalks were widened, trees were planted, bicycle paths were paved, and public transportation routes were added. But this has not happened in a similar way in other cities. An example of this can be found in the State Comptroller’s report for 2022, which stated that due to a dispute between the Finance Ministry’s Accountant General and the Ramat Gan Municipality, the upper section between the stations in the city will not be developed.

From a summary of discussions that took place four years ago between the Transportation Authority and regulatory bodies in the ministries, it appeared that “there is no agreement between the municipalities (Ramat Gan and Bnei Brak) regarding development, such as the need for bicycle paths.”

Problematic planning for pedestrians, coupled with a lack of investment around stations, has created significant gaps. In Bat Yam, stations are surrounded by fences that block urban pedestrian traffic, in Petah Tikva, the train passes between several car lanes, and Jabotinsky Street, which runs through Ramat Gan and Bnei Brak, remains a majestic intercity highway rather than a pedestrian-friendly urban thoroughfare.

“Waiting in the middle of a highway with no shade and lots of noise is not an experience that encourages train travel,” says Professor Martens. “But that can be changed. You can reduce tracks, find solutions for shade, and change urban planning so that there are interesting destinations on the way to the station, such as commercial spaces, businesses and entertainment venues.”

Real Estate

Several studies over the years have found that light rail lines have a positive effect on property values. Work by real estate expert Ohad Danus for the Ministry of Transportation examined the effect of the Jerusalem light rail on nearby property values. The study focused on three dates: December 2001, when the light rail plan was published for deposit; March 2003, when the plan was approved; and August 2011, when the Jerusalem light rail Red Line began operating. The study found a jump, with value increases ranging from 14% to 172% over just a decade.

This article was published in Globes, Israeli Business News – en.globes.co.il – on August 14, 2024.

© Copyright Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2024.