The continuing saga of the Blue Line light rail

When the city finally has a complete and effective mass transportation system, the saga of the second light rail line, the Blue Line, will probably remain a case study in how to handle – or not to handle – such large-scale projects involving so many parties, including the residents that the project was meant to serve.

This project has reached a turning point. By the end of this week or the beginning of the next, Mayor Nir Barkat must announce whether he will submit the project as it now stands.

Barkat, whose mantra since he entered politics some 10 years ago has always been to encourage participation of the residents in all aspects of the city’s management, is facing, perhaps for the first time, a serious challenge. Whatever his decision is – to take into consideration the opposition of a large group of residents to a segment of the line, or to stick to what is called at Safra Square and the Transportation Ministry the big picture and disregard that opposition – this story will affect the plans of other lines to come.

The residents of the German Colony are not the only ones objecting to the proposed path of the Blue Line. A group of residents from the Katamonim is also strongly opposed. Barkat must choose sides.

Following two stormy meetings of residents last summer at the Ginot Ha’ir Community Center debating the route along Emek Refaim for the Blue Line, a large and very active opposition rose up. Despite the very unpleasant welcome that greeted Meir Turgeman, deputy mayor and president of the local committee for planning and construction, when he came in August with goodwill to listen to the residents’ claims, he undertook to speak with Barkat on their behalf and obtained a three-month delay, before submitting the project to the district planning and construction committee.

During that time, the residents opposing the one-kilometer Emek Refaim segment of the line worked day and night to come up with a serious alternative. Moneys were raised, experts were engaged, voluntary work was invested, and it all resulted, earlier this week, in an impressive 102-page brochure – clear, instructive, with color plates and drawings, proposing no fewer than three alternative courses.

At the end of a meeting with representatives of the action committee, Barkat declared only that he would look seriously into their proposal and would decide within a week. According to some of the representatives present at the meeting, Barkat hinted that he would choose between three options – to completely reject the residents’ proposal, to accept it as is, or – what seems the highest probability now – to submit the project to the district committee without the Emek Refaim segment, until agreement between the parties can be reached.

But one thing is clear by now: In any such future project, residents will have be involved from beginning to end, regardless of the burden to the process.

The second of eight planned light rail lines, the Blue Line is to connect Ramot to Gilo, through part of the city center and the Katamonim, with a link to the next line – the Green Line, scheduled to run along Hebron Road and the south. For about a kilometer (out of 21 for the whole Blue Line) it is set to run along Emek Refaim Street, from Liberty Bell Park to the Oranim junction, close to Hamesila Park.

Turgeman says that while he supports the residents’ right to be heard, he has no doubt that the proposed line would be the best thing that could happen to the street, to the businesses there and to the whole neighborhood, adding that “people should get used to the idea that we’re a city, with all its residents’ needs and rights, not a separate, privileged neighborhood.”

The German Colony residents presented three alternatives to the Emek Refaim option – one joining the planned Green Line on Hebron Road, along Hatnufa Street, to the end of Hamesila Park. The second is through Pierre Koenig Street until Hatnufa, and south to the end of Hamesila Park. The third option is for the line to run from Harakevet Street (along Hamesila Park) to Oranim junction as far as Haparsa Street.

Professionals at the Master Plan for Mass Transportation (today a part of the Jerusalem Municipality) accuse the residents of promoting their own narrow interests, without taking into consideration the needs of the Katamonim residents, or the needs of the business life of Emek Refaim, which all agree has been slowing down for lack of transportation and lack of parking – a problem that a light rail should solve, as it did on Jaffa Road.

The Master Plan staff have also presented a report, which basically rejects all the claims and objections of the German Colony residents.

Above all this hovers the threat that, facing all this opposition, the ministry might ultimately decide that Jerusalem is not ready for the light rail project, and might send the money – close to NIS 20 billion – to the light rail in Tel Aviv, an eventuality that is the nightmare of the mayor and also of the deputy mayor, who might consider running for mayor in the next election.

The continuing saga of the Blue Line light rail

By the people and for the people.