Rushed work on J’lem-TA rail line causing concern
Pressure to open railway by late September has caused a spate of near work accidents, sources say
Concern is growing about work accidents on the highspeed Tel Aviv-Jerusalem railway line, with enormous pressure being exerted to finished the work by the Sukkot holiday in late September, as promised by Transportation Minister Israel Katz.
A number of sources told Globes that in recent weeks the pressure has been causing near accidents during work on the line. Among other things, there were cases in which employees were almost electrocuted or run over. One of the sources, a manager in one of the contracting companies working on the projects, said, “There are so many concerns working on the railway line here – infrastructure contractors [Spanish construction company Semi], Israel Railways, signals concerns, and many other levels – that there were many cases of near accidents of electrocution and running over. For example, it happens when people enter sections they should not enter – a moving locomotive or the railway’s test railcart.”
Globes previously reported alleged deviations from safety rules on the project, for example when locomotive drivers entered tunnels on the railway tracks without having standard communications devices.
The original opening date for the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem line was on the eve of the Passover in late March, but Israel Railways announced at the last minute a six-month postponement in the timetable as a result of safety requirements by Israel Police and rescue and evacuation forces independently of Israel Railways. The engineering work on supervising the railway is still far from completion.
‘Science fiction’
Israel Railways’ management previously admitted that electrification work on the section between Mishmar Ayalon and the Hagana Railway Station was one of the main risk factors and was liable to cause postponement of the project’s completion. An Israel Railways senior executive even said, “We’re committing suicide on this section.”
Professional sources working on the project said that while the first section of the highspeed railway between Mishmar Ayalon and Jerusalem was almost ready, the second section ending at the Hagana Railway Station was nowhere near completion because of problems in preparing the electrification infrastructure – the bridges in this section were built previously without preparation for electrical poles. Employees of Israel Railways and Semi are now working hard on preparing them.
Furthermore, the work being done on this segment is being conducted on the active railway tracks, which makes continuous work impossible; work can only be done when the line is shut down for short periods. For example, Israel Railways announced recently the closing of the section of tracks for a period of time between Modi’in and Ben-Gurion Airport because of infrastructure work for assembling the electrification systems.
It is now clear that in order to meet the timetable repeatedly announced by Katz, Israel Railways’ management is considering the possibility of partly opening the section that is ready. This option includes traveling on the electrified train from Jerusalem until Mishmar Ayalon, where the electric locomotive will be replaced by a diesel one. This exchange will take 10-15 minutes, provided that it goes smoothly with no malfunctions.
The most obvious and logical question is why the line has to be partially opened with all the resulting complications, instead of waiting for all the work on the line to be completed.
“Were I an adviser to the transportation minister, I would tell him to stop talking about September, and I wouldn’t tell him to talk about March, either. The pressure is really strong I hope that this pressure does not cause any loss of life at some stage and does not lead to typical Israeli overconfidence, with something being opened following by problems two days later. I have no doubt that they still need several months in order to prepare the complete infrastructure of three trains an hour to Jerusalem. Right now, it seems like science fiction,” the source said.
Another factor that could cause a delay in launching the new line is special requirements of rescue and evacuation vehicles. Special rescue and evacuation vehicles for the railway tunnels have to be capable of traveling on the railway tracks in case the train gets stuck, for example in the middle of an 11-km. tunnel. The Israel Railways tender for the rescue vehicles was published only a month ago, with three vehicles being ordered. At the same time, if one of the losers in the tender files a court petition, something that happens quite often in infrastructure tenders, the launching of the new line could be delayed still further.
The cost of the high-speed train to Jerusalem, the ministry’s biggest project, is estimated at NIS 7 billion. The line is designed to connect Israel’s capital to the Greater Tel Aviv metropolitan area and the central region, thereby relieving traffic congestion. The planned duration of the journey on the fast line from Tel Aviv to the Jerusalem International Convention Center, the last stop on the line, which will be 80 meters beneath ground level, is less than 30 minutes.
Following an expose by Globes in February, the opening of the high-speed line was postponed because it turned out that not all of the regulatory approvals required to operate the line for commercial passenger use had been obtained. Israel Railways was optimistic and said that test journeys were already taking place. (Globes/TNS)