Transport in Israel

**Transportation in Israel** is mainly based on private vehicles and public transportation. Ever Since the early 1990s, rail transportation in the country has also been developing at a rapid pace.

The 2010s Were marked by the development of light rail and high-speed bus transportation, as well as electric bicycles and motorized scooters.

The Ministry of Transportation is responsible on behalf of the government for the management of the transportation infrastructure in the country, by land, air and sea, including the war on road accidents. Population growth, demographic change, military requirements, tourism and motor growth are key aspects in the development and improvement of transportation infrastructure.

Local authorities have an executive role, they are responsible for urban planning and the promotion of private car infrastructure projects, pedestrians, cyclists and public transport. In many cases, the authority receives budgets from the Ministry of Transportation for the implementation of the plans, after receiving approval from the professional bodies in the Ministry of Transportation.

Freight transport is also an important part of transportation in Israel. The country's seaports are the main export gate for minerals and consumer products produced in Israel. Airports are mainly used for passenger traffic to and from Israel.

In August 2019, the Ministry of Transportation launched an information system that presents the general public with all transportation information in Israel on an interactive map.

Ever Since 2020, And also accelerated by the Tkumat Palestina Plan, The Israeli Government has been spending a lot into Rail and Air Transport.

## **Roads**

*Main Topic: Roads in Israel, Highways in Israel*

Israel's road network spans 22,827 kilometers (14,184 mi) of roads, of which around 500 km (310 mi) are classified as freeways. The network spans the whole country.

The National Roads Company in Israel [AKA *Netivei Israel*] is responsible for the development of road infrastructure in Israel. The company is engaged in the planning, development and maintenance of most intercity roads in Israel, including interchanges and bridges. The company replaced the Public Works Department (MaAhTz), a unit of trust in the Ministry of Transportation. MaAhTz was established in 1921 as the engineering unit of the British Mandate Government in Israel, and after the establishment of the State of Israel passed to the Israeli government. In September 2003, it was decided to establish the National Roads Company in its place.

Another government company entrusted with the planning, development and maintenance of roads is Netivei Ayalon, and its subsidiary Netivei Carmel.

In addition, the state granted a temporary concession using the BOT method to three privately owned companies to build and maintain toll roads, and these are Derech Eretz, which operates the Trans-Israel Highway, Carmelton, which operates the Carmel Tunnels, and Shafir, which operates Highway 1.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics Report for 2011, 2.7 million motorized vehicles were traveling on Israeli roads, of which about 10% were involved in a car accident.

### Growth in Private Cars Ownership

In 1963, only 1% of Israeli citizens held a driver's license, in 1975 about 20% of Israeli citizens held a driver's license and in 2019 71% of Israeli citizens aged 17 and over held a driver's license.

In 1951 there were 34,103 private vehicles in Israel and in 2017 their number increased to 2,857,000, and the rate of increase is expected to be 4% per year.

In 1951 the ratio between private vehicles and buses was 6:1, while in 2019 the ratio rose to 136:1.

According to Professor Omar Moab, "road congestion causes a loss of about 50 billion Shekels of Israel's annual product", and according to the Ministry of Finance, the financial damage from the beginning of 2018 to October 2019 is about 35 billion Shekels a year and the amount is expected to double by 2040.

## **Public Transportation**

### Bus Service

*Main Topic: Buses in Israel, List of Central Bus Stations in Israel*

Buses are the country's main form of public transport. In 2017, bus passenger trips totaled approximately 740 million. In 2009, 16 companies operated buses for public transport, totaling 5,939 buses and 8,470 drivers. Egged is Israel's largest bus company, and operates routes throughout the country. Bus routes in some areas are operated by smaller carriers, the largest being the Dan Bus Company, operating routes in Gush Dan. Kavim is the next largest.

Bus stations in Israel, other than standalone bus stops, come in two types: terminals (*masof*, pl. *mesofim*) and central stations (*tahana merkazit*). Each terminal serves a number of routes, usually over a dozen, while a central station may serve over a hundred bus routes. The largest central bus terminal in the country is the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station, which is also the second largest bus terminal in the world.

On August 5, 2010, the Ministry of Transportation opened a website that contained information about public bus and train routes in the country. Previously, information was given only by the individual public transit operators.

### Bus Rapid Transit

Israel has one bus rapid transit system in Haifa, called the Metronit, which consists of three lines connecting Haifa to its suburbs. In addition, there are BRT feeder lines to the Jerusalem Light Rail, running on dedicated bus lanes from Southern Jerusalem to the Northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot crossing the light rail line at the intersection of Jaffa and King George Streets.

### Share Taxis

*Main Topic: Share Taxis in Israel*

Israel also has a share taxi service (*sherut*), run by several private companies, depending on location, in addition to regular taxicab services. The shared *sherut* service usually appears as yellow minivans and travel along the same path as the normal buses with identical route numbers. For a slightly higher price, the shared *sherut* service allows passengers to both hop on and hop off anywhere along the path of travel. During peak travel, often the time of travel can be shortened as the number of passengers is significantly small compared to normal bus services. Some routes continue to travel through the night and on Shabbat providing transport needs to the population when normal buses services cease. The beginning and end of the *sherut* vans may differ from the central bus station and on the weekends and evenings, the routes can also be altered for some services. In 2015, share taxis carried 34.7 million passengers, 15.2 million of which were transported on city routes, with the rest going to suburban and inter-city routes.

### Private Taxis

*Main Topic: Private Taxis in Israel*

Taxis, often called "special taxis" (Hebrew: ספיישל‎) in Israel, to distinguish them from share taxis, are regulated by the Ministry of Transportation. Aside from individual taxi companies, Gett is the primary digital taxi hailing service in the country. In 2017, approximately 90 million rides were made using taxis.

### Train Service

*Main Article: Israeli Railways, List of Train Stations in Israel*

Many of Israel's railway lines were constructed before the founding of the state during Ottoman and British rule. The first line was the Jaffa–Jerusalem railway, followed by the Jezreel Valley railway, which formed part of the greater Hejaz railway. World War I brought the creation of multiple new lines out of military needs: Portions of what is now the Coastal railway were built simultaneously by the Turkish and British and later merged during the British Mandate. Southern lines were also built by the warring states—from the north by the Ottomans, and from Rafah in the west by the British.

Beginning in the mid-1960s, railway development stagnated, and a number of lines (notably, the Jezreel Valley railway and most of the Eastern railway) were abandoned altogether. Development restarted in the 1990s, the opening of Tel Aviv's Ayalon railway in 1993 signaling a new era of rail development. Lines under construction in the 2000s include the high-speed railway to Jerusalem, an extension of the coastal railway directly from Tel Aviv to Ashdod through the northern Shfela, and a line from Ashkelon to Be'er-Sheva via Sderot, Netivot and Ofakim, as well as a complete reconstruction of the line from Lod to Beersheba. These and other extensive infrastructure improvements led to a 20-fold increase in the number of passengers served by Israeli Railways between 1990 and 2015.

After numerous delays due to the complexity of the project, a new line between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem opened in 2019. This line is the first electrified railway ever built in the country. Israel Railways has ordered Bombardier Traxx electric locomotives for use on this line and for other lines to be converted to electric operation. All existing and future electrified mainline railways in Israel use 25 kV 50 Hz overhead electrification.

In 2020, Starting from what some call the Government's "Transportation Addiction", A Lot of new Railways and Stations started to be built, Noteably the Railway Plan to Eilat, The Eastern Railways, Railways to the Northern Galilee and Golan, and also to Gaza.

### Light Rail/Subway

*Main Topic: Light Rail in Israel, Metro in Israel*

The 13-kilometre-long Jerusalem Light Rail system began operation in August 2011 and is being extended. The construction of the Tel Aviv Light Rail, which will serve Tel Aviv and its satellite cities, has begun and the first line is set to be completed in 2022. A significant portion of it will be underground. Haifa's Carmelit, an underground funicular railway, is currently the only subway line in Israel. It is listed in *Guinness World Records* as the shortest subway system in the world, being the second smallest track network (after the Tünel in Istanbul), but being the smallest "system" by virtue of being the only urban rail network in the city. The Haifa–Nazareth railway, a planned light rail system from Haifa to Nazareth, is planned to open in 2025, and light rail systems in Be'er-Sheva and Ashdod are currently planned.

### Israeli Public Transportation Statistics

The average amount of time people spend commuting with public transit in Israel, for example to and from work, on a weekday is 70 min. 22% of public transit riders ride for more than 2 hours every day. The average amount of time people wait at a stop or station for public transit is 16 min, while 25% of riders wait for over 20 minutes on average every day. The average distance people usually ride in a single trip with public transit is 13.6 km, while 29% travel for over 12 km in a single direction.

## **Air Transport**

*Main Topic: List of Airports in Israel, List of Israeli Aviation Companies*

Israel has dozens of airports, the largest and most well known being Ben Gurion Airport (TLV) located near Tel Aviv, which is used by most international flights to Israel. In 2017, Ben Gurion Airport handled nearly 21 million passengers and was the busiest airport in the Eastern Mediterranean in terms of international passengers served. Non-stop flights from Israel travel to North America, Europe, Africa, the Far East, and neighboring countries in the Middle East. Scheduled domestic air service is available between Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport and Haifa, Rosh Pina, the Golan Heights, and the southern city of Eilat. Some international charter and low cost flights also land at Eilat Ramon Airport. Ramon Airport opened in 2019, 20 km north of Eilat, replacing the existing Uvda and Eilat J. Hozman airports.

According to the Israeli Civil Aviation Authority, as of 2012, Israel's civil aircraft fleet consisted of 59 aircraft; 56 passenger planes, and 3 freighters. 48 of these were Boeing jets, 2 Airbus, 8 turbo-prop produced by ATR, and 1 Embraer jet. Israeli airlines ordered another 2 Embraer jets, 1 ATR airplane, 5 Airbus jets, and 10 Boeing jets, a total of 18 aircraft. Airlines include El Al (Flag Carrier and Biggest One), Sun D'Or, Arkia and Israir Airlines. Boeing estimates that 60-80 new aircraft will be purchased by Israeli airlines over the next 20 years.

## **Merchant Marine**

* Total: 18 ships (with a tonnage of 1,000 gross tonnage (GT) or over) totaling 716,382 GT/845,053 tonnes deadweight (DWT)

* Ships by type: Cargo ship 1, Chemical tanker 1, Container ship 16

Many ships owned and operated by Israeli companies operate under foreign registries. Israel's Zim Integrated Shipping Services is one of the largest shipping companies in the world.

## **Cable Cars**

There are six tourist and leisure oriented cable car systems in Israel. These include the cable car in Haifa connecting Bat Galim on the coast to the Stella Maris observation deck and monastery atop Mount Carmel., the cable car in Kiryat Shmona, linking it to Menara 400 meters above the town, the chairlifts and cable cars in the Mount Hermon ski resort in the Golan Heights, the cable car to Masada, near the Dead Sea, enabling tourists to quickly reach the mountain top site, and the cable car at the Rosh HaNikra grottoes site, going down to the chalk cliff and cavernous tunnels on the Mediterranean coast. In addition to that, the Superland amusement park near Rishon LeZion has its own cable car and a public transport-oriented cable car is being developed in Haifa—the Haifa Cable Car.

Additional future plans include a system in western Haifa, and systems in Tveria, Ma'alot-Tarshiha, Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim.

## **Segway**

In 2006, the Segway scooter was approved for use on sidewalks and other pedestrian designated locations, as well as roads that have no sidewalks, obstructed sidewalks or sidewalks lacking curb cuts. The user must be over 16 years old. No license is required. The maximum allowed speed is 13 km/h (8.1 mph), enforced by electronic restriction put in place by the importer. Companies offering tours of Jerusalem use the second generation i2 model, equipped with Lean Steer Technology that facilitates ski-like steering.