"When the poet Natan Alterman wrote his poem 'Subway' in 1936 (about his disappointment over the decision not to build a subway in Tel Aviv in the 1930s), he certainly never imagined that, 74 years later, the fate of the subway would still be elusive," Tel Aviv-Jaffa Mayor Ron Huldai has written to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "Globes" has obtained a copy of this letter, which Huldai hopes will speed up a government decision on whether to let the Metro Transport Solutions (MTS) consortium keep its franchise for the Tel Aviv light rail system.
MTS is a consortium comprising Africa-Israel Investments Ltd. (TASE:AFIL; Pink Sheets:AFIVY), Egged Israel Transport Cooperative Society Ltd., Siemens AG (NYSE: SI; XETRA: SIE), China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), and Sociedade de Construcoes Soares da Costa SA of Portugal.
Before Passover, the Ministry of Finance said that it would render its decision about the franchise after the holiday, even though its ultimatum to MTS to secure financing for the railway expired at the end of March. Passover has passed with no decision.
Huldai opened his letter with a quote from Alterman's poem, "Subway": "Once again we have stretched out a small finger to the future, and once again it has slipped by. We almost had a subway and now the disappointment… What a shame!"
In the letter to Netanyahu, Huldai said, "Much has already been said and written on the issue, but it seems, now more than ever, that we are at a fateful and decisive moment, which requires courageous leadership. Construction of the Dan Region Mass Transit System is not a luxury, but an urgent and critical need for the continued development of the metropolis and the Israeli economy. The State of Israel cannot develop without advanced urban centers capable of handling the growth in population. A basic condition for their development is the presence of an effective mass public transport system."
Huldai added, "On the other hand, we have no alternative to the light rail Red Line, a project that has been under discussion for over a decade at an investment of more than NIS 1 billion, and which is intended to be the backbone of the public transport system for Israel's most bustling metropolis."
Huldai warns that every day that passes without a decision on getting this "important national project underway increases the social, economic, and environmental damage to Israel and its citizens to the point that it would become irreversible. Data show that the public has had its fill of promises and ceremonies, is losing its faith in public transport in favor or private cars, a highly dangerous process that leaves us lagging the world's great metropolises."
Huldai concludes, "Hundreds of thousands of citizens, who are stuck in traffic jams, suffering daily from the lack of a mass transit system, are waiting for your decision. Today, more than ever, the Red Line is realizable, and all that is needed is a decision and courageous leadership. In your hands is the power to change the fate of the railway and to prove, in the words of the poet Alterman, 'If we've succeeded in building castles in the air, we'll yet succeed in cutting railroads in the rock'."
The Prime Minister's Office said in response, "The issue of the Red Line is in final discussions by the tenders committee, which was legally established by the Ministries of Finance and Transport, and to the extent that the prime minister's intervention is necessary, it will happen in the coming weeks."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 14, 2010
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2010