PHOTOS: Jerusalem Light Rail Opening Day

[WMATAGMOAGH]

The Jerusalem Light Rail opened this morning at 5:30 AM local time.  I rode it from the southwest end to the northeast end this afternoon (just one way), and also took it one stop (also northbound) near the northern end while getting photos along the ROW in Pisgat Ze'ev.  I don't have time to write a complete report now, and won't have time to do so until next week sometime, but here are a few teasers for now:













I'll post the rest of the photos and my trip report in this thread once I write it...

[WMATAGMOAGH]

As I've posted several times now, the Jerusalem Light Rail finally opened to the general public last Friday.  Although I was up until 3 AM on Friday morning, I decided to pass on trying to ride the first train (I had no idea where it would enter service and no reasonable way to get to it), I opted for a later afternoon run after some pre-Shabbat shopping in the morning.

NB:  Feel free to refer to my unofficial Jerusalem Bus Map (that includes the light rail line) to get a sense of distances, places, etc. in the report that follows.

I took the bus from my apartment to the start of the line at Har Herzl.  The bus parallels the light rail from the Central Bus Station to Har Herzl, and we left the CBS at about the same time as a light rail train, close enough that a "race" was fair game.  I was particularly interested in seeing who would win because of the signal priority system for the train not being fully activated.  As of now, only a few signals have it (it would be nice to know which ones, you'll see why as you keep reading).  Had it not been for a backup extending out of the military cemetery, the bus would have beaten the train to the end of the line; it was a tie instead.  Also of note, the train had quite a bit of a lead about halfway there, large enough that I thought it would win fairly easily, but was slowed by station stops and lights.

I also noted we didn't pass many trains going in the other direction.  The large crowd waiting for the train once I got to Har Herzl confirmed what I had surmised, there was a large gap between this train and the one in front of it, wherever it was.




Mashiach (aka the Jerusalem Light Rail) arrives:


Once on board, I got a place at the RFW with plenty of others, intending to take photos out the front for as much of the trip as I could (I figure the opportunity to do this without pissing off the operators will last as long as the train is a novelty, eventually it won't be looked upon so favorably).  We started out a few minutes before 1 PM for the approximately 8 mile trip to Pisgat Ze'ev.

Looking ahead as the train passes the Har Herzl Military Cemetery:


Many people came out to ride the train on its first day, the train was so crowded the attendants on board my train wouldn't let passengers on board after the first stop and told them to wait for the next train, a few minutes behind:


Entering Denya Square station:


Some of the company I had at the RFW window:


View of the Strings Bridge from the Kiryat Moshe Station:


Crossing the Strings Bridge:


Entering the stop in front of the Central Bus Station, passing a train going the other way:


A look in to the operator's cab.  As you can see the controller is on the left side of the console.  There is a button on top of the controller for the bell, a convenient place if you ask me.  The door controls are where the driver's right hand is, and the button for the horn is on the panel of buttons facing the operator himself, near the emergency brake.  The large screen in the center of the console is like the fault display on the NTTs in New York (however the display seems to only be in English).  The two smaller screens show views from the 4 cameras (two on each individual LRV) of the side of the train and allow the operator to ensure that the doors are clear before closing them.


At the next station, HaTurim, we experienced the first traffic light related delay as far as I can remember.  The station is bounded by a crosswalk on each end, each one is governed by a light.  In an ideal situation, the signals would be green for pedestrians except when a train comes through, yet we must have spent a good 3 to 5 minutes waiting for this light to change after the doors had closed, and it was one of numerous times the operator had to call into the control center to try getting them to change the light (based on what I could understand of the transmission). 

We eventually got underway and reached the Mahane Yehuda Market, where some pedestrians didn't really seem to care that a train was coming down the tracks:


Passing another train near the market:


A bus that hadn't been able to pull all the way through the intersection at Kikar HaDavidka blocked us from going forward until he was able to move along, and the pedestrians walking around the bus didn't help either.  Naturally, since this is Israel, the operator just layed on the horn and rang the bell as much as he could even though there was nowhere for him to go and nothing that he could do about it.


Waiting to enter the Jaffa-Center station, having traveled just under 3 miles in about 37 minutes, including station stops and red lights.  Nearly all of the Jaffa Road pedestrian mall is visible in this photo:


Going along the pedestrian mall:




Along this stretch, I had overheard a woman asking the attendant standing nearby in English where to get off for the Old City and also could tell the attendant's English was not up to the task.  I told her where to go.  Turns out she was a Delta flight attendant on a long layover and had no idea that she had put herself into the chaos of the the light rail on its first day.

View from the Kikar Safra station, the Old City wall is in the distance:



The light at Kikar Tzahal (at the end of Jaffa Road) was another very long one, as it had also been during the preview ride I was a part of on Tuesday afternoon.  Once we got underway again, we ran along the Old City wall for a short distance along the only part of the line to have an entirely grass ROW.  The view in the distance is East Jerusalem:


View from the Shivteo Yisrael station, literally on the Green Line.  The column just ahead of the train marks the location of the Mandelbaum Gate, the only access point between East Jerusalem and West Jerusalem during the Jordanian occupation from 1948 until 1967.  This is also one of only 4 island platform stations along the entire line.


On the incline after leaving the station and approaching Kikar Zaks and the American Colony Hotel, we ran one of the two headed "signals" alongside the line with yellow lights.  Generally, the top one would be lit, but this time the bottom one was lit and once the operator realized this, he put the brakes on hard and came to a quick stop (although he passed the "signal").  He had to call control before moving again.  I asked an employee standing next to me what had happened and he essentially said we had run through a light, though I still can't figure out what these signals do.

As we wait to leave the Shimon HaTzadik station, another train approaches from the other direction:


However, just as the trains get a green light, a car dashes across the tracks (running its red light):


View of the right of way as the train heads north towards Ammunition Hill, along one of the faster (but not fastest) stretches of track along the line, reaching a speed of about 50 KPH (31 MPH) along here IIRC.


Entering Ammunition Hill Station, about an hour and 5.1 miles after leaving Har Herzl (for the record, a bus could probably travel from Ammunition Hill to the Jaffa Center station in as little as 15 minutes, depending on the bus route):






I believe the speed limit between Ammunition Hill and Givat HaMivtar is 60 KPH, the highest limit along any point of the line.  At French Hill Junction (Givat HaMivtar), we had another long wait for a light, nearly 5 minutes if not more.  After finally passing through the intersection, we headed through the Arab neighborhood of Shuafat.






Entering Beit Hanina Station, the last of the three stops in Shuafat:


We also passed a train here, which would be the last southbound train of the day (service was supposed to end at 3 PM on Friday so that the trains would be off the line before Shabbat started).


The train was emptier at this point, although still carrying a crowd.  Also at about this point, the attendant and operator began gathering their cigarettes, anxiously awaiting a break and beginning to talk about their desire to talk the dispatchers in to letting them just deadhead to the depot and not do another trip, or at least to have a coffee break before going back.


At 2:35 PM, 1 hour and 40 minutes after leaving Har Herzl, we made it to Heil HaAvir in Pisgat Ze'ev.  If any of you have been calculating the average speeds based on the timing and distance info I provided, you'll realize the average speed of the train including stops over the course of the entire 8 mile trip was about 5 MILES PER HOUR!  (Maybe this is why they use the metric system, doesn't an average speed of 8 kilometers sound much more impressive?)


The attendant and operator got their way, by the time we reached the end of the line the next train indicator had been turned off and instead showed that service had ended for the day, even though it was not yet 3 PM.


Heil HaAvir Station, the northeastern terminal of the line:


A few minutes later, our follower showed up (from what I could tell, if there was an attempt for even spacing between trains, it didn't work out very well, 3-5 minute waits could be followed by 30 minute waits).








After the next train came in, knowing there was a line of trains coming up the line and no more inbound trains, I began to walk south along the line to get photos of those trains as they went by.



Right of way looking south towards the Pisgat Ze'ev Mall:


Pisgat Ze'ev Center Station (not actually located in Pisgat Ze'ev Center however, go figure):


Train deadheading to the depot passing through the Yekutiel Adam Station:


Yekutiel Adam Station:






Another deadhead going to the depot:


A northbound train was about to come at this point, so I decided to hop on that one stop to get more photo ops as the next batch of trains rolled through the neighborhood.  Here is that train at Pisgat Ze'ev Center:


Leaving Pisgat Ze'ev Center:


Sayeret Duchifat Station (which is actually in Pisgat Ze'ev Center, along with Heil HaAvir):


Train entering Sayeret Duchifat:


Train leaving Sayeret Duchifat:


Same train waiting for the lights to change to enter Heil HaAvir:


Here comes another train:




It too, had to wait a bit to get into the terminal:


Here was my only decent Egged bus with light rail shot of the day:


At this point, with the bus running directly from this neighborhood to my own only running twice an hour with the onset of Shabbat and one due to come by within minutes, I decided to call it a day.

Overall observations and thoughts:

It is nice to finally see this train up and running, and it seems as if everyone else feels the same way.  The trains are free for at least the next two weeks due to the ticket system failing during testing.  Additionally, the buses were all supposed to change on the same day the light rail opened, then the plan was to only change a handful of them, and now they opted to change none of them, so I think the soft launch was the way to go, especially with the traffic lights not working as planned and all the other issues.  Unlike last Tuesday, the announcements worked on both trains I rode on Friday, but they weren't working today.  It is certainly fun to ride, but isn't a reliable form of transit yet.  The bus I took home, while operating a route similar but not identical to the light route, covered the 7.7 kilometers (about 4.75 miles) from Sayeret Duchifat to Jaffa-Center in about 20 minutes.  In other words, for now, if you want to get somewhere fast, take the bus.  It doesn't help that the headways don't seem to be very consistent.  According to one employee I spoke with, there were 15 trains on the line on Friday.  But if it took 210 minutes to make a round trip, that meant the trains were running about once every 15 minutes in theory, and obviously they weren't in practice.  I think this article from Haaretz sums things up pretty well. 

Today, I rode the train just from the Central Bus Station across downtown to Kikar Safra.  With all the buses diverted to Agripas Street since January with the closure of Yafo for the light rail testing and subsequent operation, it usually takes 15 minutes to make it up the length of the street with one lane in each direction, sometimes even more.  My goal today was to see if I could get the bus ahead of the one I would have caught otherwise at the Central Bus Station by taking the light rail through town.  Two buses on different routes that would pass by the stop I'd wait at left the bus station just as a train was pulling in.  The light at HaTurim was long again (see back to Part 1 of my report) and ultimately, I got to the bus stop about 5 minutes before the buses that went up Agripas, and still had a 15 minute wait for my bus (meaning I probably just missed one, both at the Central Bus Station and again on Shlomtzion HaMalka).  However, the train I was on and the trains that went by in the other direction were all packed, as have been the platforms when I've seen them since Friday.  I can't tell if people are joyriding (kids are still on summer vacation from school) or actually trying to commute, but everyone seems to be enjoying the newest toy in town, at least while it is free.

Hope you enjoyed reading (if you made it this far).  If there are any questions, do ask, and I'll continue to make additional reports here as warranted.

[rideonrulez]

Oren, That was awesome. Great report!

[WMAveteran]

Very inclusive report describing the good, the bad and the ugly.   Thank you very much indeed. 

[WMATAGMOAGH]

Thanks guys. 

[Sand Box John]

Nice stuff.

Thanks Oren.

[WayneNYC]

Agreed!  This is a great report.  Nice pics too.  Thanks a bunch Oren.

[Tritransit Area]

I agree with the others.   Great pics and overall report on the development of the Light Rail line and the opening day service.  It is exciting to see this new form of transportation in service now.

Hopefully once the kinks are worked out, the trains will be a bit faster?  It does seem like a very long line.

[WMATAGMOAGH]

The trains will be faster once the signal prioritization system is fully up and running.  Of course, nothing is going to plan right now.  They still haven't collected any fares and the bus changes originally scheduled for next week (the latest first round of changes, the plan for what will change first and when has changed quite a few times in the past 8-10 weeks or so) has been delayed indefinitely.