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| PHOTOS & REPORT: Jerusalem Light Rail Opening Day (Part 3) (1096508) | |||
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PHOTOS & REPORT: Jerusalem Light Rail Opening Day (Part 3) |
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Posted by WMATAGMOAGH on Mon Aug 22 16:33:42 2011, in response to PHOTOS & REPORT: Jerusalem Light Rail Opening Day (Part 2), posted by WMATAGMOAGH on Mon Aug 22 16:07:35 2011. 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. |
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