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•
he train from Tel Aviv to
Jerusalem slowly winds its
way through the hills, de-
positing passengers at var-
ious points along the 90-minute
ride.
More than a century after its
Turkish-administered and Ger-
man- financed construction, the
Jerusalem-Tel Aviv train line's
speed, route and passenger vol-
ume have hardly changed, at
least in comparison with rail-
transportation development else-
where in the West and Far East.
The Jerusalem-Tel Aviv line
does not bear any resemblance
to the RER, France's bullet-fast
commuter train, or to the Long
Island Railroad, New York's
perennially crowd-
ed commuter train
that has been car-
rying passengers
into and out of
New York City for
decades. In fact,
while other coun-
tries have seen the
need to provide
their commuters
with a rail alterna-
tive, Israeli bu-
reaucrats' endless
debates have kept
the train stuck in
the station while
passengers sit in bumper-to-
bumper traffic.
At this stage of the train game,
as major Israeli cities are con-
ducting feasibility studies re-
garding local rail systems, the
challenges of longer-distance
travel have been left to the du-
bious devices of Egged and the
Ministry of Transport.
So, will Israel ever boast an
Amtrak? According to Alex
Langer, a senior transportation
analyst at the Transport Min-
istry and a staunch proponent of
a nationwide railway system, the
answer is yes. The problem, he
says, is one of priorities.
"You can't divide the issues,"
he says. `The need for a railroad
is clear to us today. We're a small,
crowded country which will prob-
ably get more crowded, and the
current roads won't solve the prob-
lem. We need a railroad to bring
passengers to their destinations.
The first step is to define the
travel corridors, usually based
on the major city centers. In
Israel, those arteries run from
the north into Haifa, from Haifa
to Tel Aviv, from Tel Aviv to
Jerusalem and from Tel Aviv to
Beersheba.
The next task is to prove the
project's economic feasibility.
While it is recognized that the
current trains do not come close
to fulfilling their potential, the
bottom line, says the Transport
Ministry, is funding.
And so, nearly half a century
after Israel's birth, its transit plan
has barely reached stage one, and
it seems the major stumbling
block is deciding who is in charge.
Shoresh Lerer, director of the
Ports and Railways Authority,
says, "We need to decide how
much money will go into creat-
ing this infrastructure." "In the
next five years, we have to put
aside resources for rail renova-
tion. The problem is, everyone
wants something else — some
want suburban, some want light
rail, some want a metro.
He laments the allocation of
multibillion-shekel budgets for
road works, but cites the in-
creasing number of cars and the
deplorable state of the roads,
which are completely unsuited
for the traffic they bear on a dai-
ly basis.
"Someone needs to decide
where to put the money. Yes, the
tracks are ancient and need to be
replaced, but so do the roads.
"In the next five years, people
will continue to buy cars, 60 per-
cent more each year. And if you
think that in France, where they
put a ton of money into trains,
they don't have cars, then you're
mistaken."
Mr. Langer agrees with Mr.
Lerer. He says that in Japan,
which boasts one of the most im-
pressive train systems in the
world, only 20 percent of the pop-
ulation rides the rails. The rest
prefer their cars.
"You have to make it easy for
the rider, such as using buses as
feeders, because the trains can't
do it all," Mr. Langer says. ❑
JPFS