The Israeli Ministry of Transport talks about big plans, but in terms of implementation the picture is bleak. Even after the ministry manipulated the 2024 targets, it failed to achieve them. The length of public transport lines has barely increased, the number of deaths in road accidents has reached a peak not seen in 20 years, and even mega projects are being delayed. This means that despite the ambitious plans and budgets allocated, the Ministry is facing difficulty in achieving its core tasks of improving public transportation and maintaining road safety.
Passages remain on paper
Every year, the government publishes its annual action plan. The goals for 2023 included increasing the length of public transportation lines in the country from 456 kilometers to 550 kilometers. But in reality, the length of public transport lines at the end of that year reached 476 km, an increase of only 20 km. The Ministry of Transport’s explanation that the war slowed down the pace of project implementation is also tenuous, as it broke out less than three months before the end of the year.
A large part of these priority routes are implemented by the Ministry of Transport on intercity roads, and they also include lanes where cars carrying one or more additional passengers are allowed to travel (excess or carpool lanes). The plan also includes the activities of local authorities through agreements with the Ministry. For example, in Tel Aviv alone, which has an independent policy on this topic, there are 73 kilometers of public transportation lines.
There is real difficulty in enhancing public transport links due to political opposition by local authorities, mainly because it is often at the expense of existing car lanes or parking spaces. Consistently and under the supervision of all ministers, the Ministry of Transport does not pressure the authorities to enhance bus routes, but rather prefers a policy of incentives.
Despite their importance and difficulty in promoting them, after the poor results of 2023, bus routes were erased from the government’s action plan for 2024, and did not appear as a target at all. In response to a Globes inquiry, the ministry said that only nine bus lanes extending over a distance of 12 kilometers were paved last year, a number far from the target set by the ministry three years ago.
There is no doubt that the war slowed down the pace of project implementation, and the local elections that were postponed to February 2024 caused a freeze in promotions due to the mayors’ keenness not to stir up controversy before the elections. But these are not all explanations. Transportation Minister Miri Regev’s stated policy is incoherent. On the one hand, it openly supports the paving of public transport routes, and on the other hand, it has demanded the cancellation of some of them and their conversion to shared routes. It has also sought to reduce enforcement, reducing the requirement for travel in cars on Route 1 from two additional passengers to just one. Industry sources claim that the professional level is not supported in talks with mayors.
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The previous goal was set during the previous government under Merav Michaeli, but transportation policy, because it requires long-term planning, also requires consistency. Removing the target indicates that the Department of Transport is not measuring itself by its core activity. These goals were also supported in budgets, as it was decided in the 2021 budget to finance a five-year plan to pave public transportation lines at a cost of 5.4 billion shekels. However, years later, it is clear that a large part of the funds allocated to improve public transport will remain in state coffers and will not be used in practice.
The ministry failed to achieve its goals
The government’s goal for 2023 also includes reducing the number of deaths resulting from road accidents from 5.1 deaths per billion kilometers traveled to 4.9. In fact, according to data provided to Globes by the National Road Safety Council, in 2023 there were 5.5 deaths per billion kilometers traveled.
After failing to achieve the target, the Ministry of Transport, while preparing the plan for 2024, changed the criteria and examined the number of deaths relative to the population. It was explained at the time that “the safety picture may be distorted if people switch from private to public transport – the number of people traveling decreases and the proportion of deaths to people traveling increases artificially,” while according to the index this and comparing deaths By population, the expected decline is 5% every year.
In 2023, the death rate per population was 3.67 deaths per 100,000 people, and the target for 2024 was 3.48. In fact, it jumped to 4.4. No wonder, since Israel does not have a national road safety plan in the budget, and it is not included in the 2025 budget either. Thus, the Ministry of Transport failed to achieve two basic goals: public transportation and road safety. Major projects currently being promoted have also faced delays. Completion dates for the fourth railway line alongside Tel Aviv’s Ayalon Expressway and the railway electrification project have been postponed, as has the completion of the Tel Aviv Green and Purple Light Railway.
The Ministry of Transportation promises that in 2025 20 bus routes will be paved and work will begin to build BRT lines in the greater Tel Aviv area – the Blue Line between Rehovot and Rishon Lezion and the Brown Line between Rishon Lezion, Ramla and Lod.
In addition to the failure to achieve the goals, some progress was made last year in the area of structural changes in the sector. The state budget proposes that the Ministries of Finance and Transport establish urban authorities to manage transportation according to recommendations and decisions that have been on paper for 20 years, but the composition of the authorities also raises criticism. In addition, the ministries are promoting a move to regulate the bus and port sectors, which has been agreed upon and is still postponed. There is a dramatic and secret agreement between the two ministries to remove Regev’s opposition to the congestion charge in exchange for a train to Kiryat Shmona.
“This year, about 90 kilometers of routes are planned in more than 20 routes across the country,” the Transportation Ministry said. Minister Regev expressed her position in favor of public transportation lines, provided that they serve their purpose. The Minister passed a government decision to form a committee Ministry for combating road accidents.
Published by Globes, Israel Business News – en.globes.co.il – on January 8, 2025.
© Copyright Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.
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