High Speed Train Travel Holy Land Tel Aviv & Jerusalem
Israel has announced the first High Speed Train between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem
will open this year September 2018 in time for the Sukkot
High speed train travel in Israel has been a long time coming. The project to bring Tel Aviv and Jerusalem together started over 10 years ago. This is the largest railroad project in the Israeli history. It has 9 bridges and 4 tunnels to make this straight train ride a possibility. With a mountain in between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the engineering and planning has been an obstacle.
The Israel government has completed the building of this massive train project and projects it will be open September 2018 just in time for the eve of the Sukkot. Locals and tourists are looking forward to this new transportation between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem because it will decrease travel time to go between the two cities. The usual driving route between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem is approximately 1 hour without accidents or traffic jams. The old train winds through an old scenic route making many stops and takes about 2 hours to travel by train.
The old train ran on diesel and this new high tech train is completely electric allowing for speed increase. The train used today will go about 93 miles per hour and the new electric transportation train will allow up to 124 miles per hour.
There will be 4 new double decker trains. Each train will be able to accomodate 1,000 passengers each. With trains leaving every hour from both locations, the new train system will be able to transport approximately 4, 000 passengers every hour.
The design speed is 160 km/h with a projected travel time of approximately 28 minutes to Jerusalem from the Tel Aviv HaHagana Railway Station and 20 minutes to Jerusalem from the Ben Gurion Airport Railway Station.