The city of Jerusalem has approved two more Light Rail lines in the holy city, a Green Line and a Blue Line. The go-ahead was given at a municipal planning meeting last month.
The current Red Line is also to be extended, north to the Neve Yaakov neighborhood, and south to the Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center.
“I am happy to see that Jerusalem will go from having one successful Light Rail line to a network of three lines,” Transportation Minister Israel Katz said after the approvals were passed. “Light rail has significantly changed the city’s transportation… Jerusalem deserves a light rail system like that in Europe.”
The approximately 19.6 kilometer route set for the Green Line begins in the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo and will pass through the Jerusalem Convention Center, known in Hebrew as Binyanei Ha’Uma, where the “A-1” fast line railway has a terminus. It will cross the current Red Line on Herzog Boulevard, and run up to Mount Scopus.
The Green line is currently set to include 36 stops to service an expected ridership of 200,000 passengers per day, according to the Railway Gazette website.
The Blue Line is set to run about 23 kilometers from the northwestern Ramot neighborhood through the center of the city out to the eastern Talpiot neighborhood, and then on to Gilo.
The Blue line will include branches to the Malcha Mall and to Mount Scopus as well, with 42 stops and an expected ridership of some 250,000 passengers per day.