Expectations could not be lower. Work on the Greater Tel Aviv light rail is about to create a genuine disaster in Tel Aviv. Work on this 19th century solution will never end, and the economic damage it will cause in the city will be on the same scale as an atomic bomb from Iran, or even a hydrogen bomb, even without the anticipated infestation of rats.
For this reason, Minister of Transport Yisrael Katz's appearance before the cameras and microphones at a press conference called on the occasion of the beginning of work on the light rail was a surprise. Had I been Katz's media consultant, I would have told him to keep his head down. "You won't get any fame from this appearance; all you'll get will be troubles. Send the professionals to the front line, and go hide underground, like Mayor Ron Huldai," I would have warned him.
If he does become the man identified with digging up the lives of the residents of Greater Tel Aviv, Katz is liable to become the man they love to hate. His name will be associated by drivers, peddlers, merchants, and pedestrians with unflattering adjectives and an array of curses. Katz is well aware of this. He is one of the cautious ones, more experienced and sensitive to criticism than the politicians who live here. By itself, his decision to take command is admirable. What lies behind it? That is difficult to figure out. Is it a true feeling of leadership, without any cynicism? On the other hand, maybe he wants to be portrayed as the enemy of all those leftists living in the Tel Aviv swamp. Or perhaps he has the daring, not to mention crazy, idea that this project could actually be a success?
It seems to me that Katz regards the light rail as a way to make his mark. As a man of accomplishment, he is in need of a flagship project. As a politician who is no longer young, he is thinking about posterity. Netivei Israel (the National Transport Infrastructure Company) is practically a thing of the past, and the grandiose dream of building a railway to Eilat will fortunately never come true. He has already demonstrated impressive capabilities in pushing projects down the throat of the Ministry of Finance. The Tel Aviv light rail is his chance to prove that he is the biggest achiever of them all.
This railway also has something else that no other project he has done had - a Nielsen rating. At the press conference, Katz gazed in wonder at reporters who never bothered to show up at similar events he held outside Greater Tel Aviv. All of a sudden, now that the bulldozers are on their doorstep and about to disturb their self-absorbed lives, they have all become transportation freaks. As far as they are concerned, a screwdriver missing from the pocket of a worker on Menachem Begin Road should be of more interest to the public than an interchange on Highway 75 connecting Haifa with Nazareth. The light rail will bring colorless Katz into living rooms and innumerable weekend conversations - what politician can resist a platform like that?
Katz's chances of being remembered as a man of action depend to a large extent on the performance capabilities of the field managers, and in this sphere, there is now more reason for optimism than in the past. The terrible image of government company Metropolitan Mass Transit System (NTA), which was well deserved during its years of bankruptcy and corruption, is no longer valid. The company's entire senior management was replaced over the past two years, and is now composed of capable and experienced people of ambition and commitment to hard work. The man responsible for the change is Alex Wiznitzer, NTA's suspended chairman of the board of directors, who brought with him to the company the team that helped him make the Public Works Department (PWD) the country's number one organ of accomplishment.
A final point to ponder: the low expectations, general lack of acclaim, and prophecies of doom are actually doing NTA and Katz a favor. NTA wisely set a distant date of 2021 as its projected finishing date. The interminable delays in Jerusalem were the main reason why the residents of the capital lost faith in the project. With expectations like these, Katz probably believes that he can only exceed them.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 20, 2015
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