THE JERUSALEM LIGHT RAIL IS RUNNING

AND I WAS EVEN CRAZY  ENOUGH TO TRAVEL ON IT .

This week was not a good week to try it out – I thought I would die of suffocation before I’d get to write this blog.

If you’ve ever traveled on an Egged bus you know how many people they squash onto them – well treble that and you have an idea of the number of people pushing and shoving their way onto the new light rail

 

Yes I admit I never thought it would run in my lifetime.

It has take as long to construct this short   14 kilometer ride run as it took to build the entire Hejaz Haifa - Damascus – Medina   line ………..a mere 1300 kilometers !

For around 10 years we Jerusalemites have had our traveling and downtown shopping lives made an utter  misery by the construction of this train’s infrastructure, when it could, and should have taken no more than a third of the time.

Businesses and shops have gone bankrupt because for years there has been no public transport along the main shopping street of Jerusalem.

But now it’s running let’s find something to celebrate about it ……………….. ummmmm I’m really trying hard to find something good to say about it.

OK – thought of something – it’s free –----- well for the next few weeks it’s free. I think this was a pathetic way of  the Jerusalem municipality thinking it could compensate us for the last 10 years misery we’ve suffered while they mismanaged the  construction.

OK something else – it has computerized signs on the stops telling you when the next train is coming so you can decide whether or not to bother to wait.

You enter and exit by 12 doors which hopefully will speed up the time it spends at the stops. But that’s because you have to prebuy your tickets and this will no doubt take some getting used to.

It stops adjacent to the curb so it’s easier for people with carriages or in wheelchairs.

You see how positive I’m being.

Come visit and  try it out for yourselves.