שימו
למחשבה של חברנו יורם בלומ
Hello Evyatar,יורם בלומאן בנושא כאוב זה !! תודתי נתונה ליורם על ההשקעה הרבה ועל הזמן המבורך שהקדיש כדי להתייחס לשאלתי ! יורם: תודות מקרב לב
I have seen your question: why rail was allowed to decline/not further developed in Israel 1948-88. The Tel Aviv -Haifa passanger rail line was built, and at least the Dimona to Ashdod rail frieght lines were built, as well as other frieght lines. The Hedjaz line was not re-developed and the lines to Jerusalem and the Negev were allowed to decline. Why? Normall you will firstly look at the economic + population figures: I am sure that you have them already. [for a good model I refer you to West Rail in Hong Kong which will open in Oct 2003. pls look at http://www.kcrc.com/eng/corporate/project/index.asp?page=WR where the costs of the project [and pls be amazed by the scale, timetable, operations and execution] are contasted with the projected traffic figures and revenues. This is the classic current case presentation for rail progjects. Those figures did not add up in the first 25 yrs of Israel. Population growth after the USSR ended plus the move away from large towns to the suberbs and the emergence of satelite towns made the figures balance. I do not accept all of what Benny H said- politics- i.e. the bus companies were successful in preventing rail developments and extentions. I am sure that they did lobby against rail... Look at Tel Aviv Haifa, where the route was made viable by creating a direct link and investing the necessary funds. not enough as the rail link was not frequent. The jerusalem line decline and lost traffic after the centrally located terminal moved to the midst of nowhere. but really the infrastructure was bad; the Turks and then the Brits created a rail on stratigic lines and on the cheap. so the jerusl. line imposed slow and long journies. after the Latroun interchange was opened the rail line could not really compete at all. The same can be said for the remaining PR network- Haifa- Lod-Beer Sheba. It had to be rebuilt to bring it up to scrath. Look in Paul's book at the timetables he publishes - and see how long it took! So really you are looking at the lack of viable suburban traffic, antiquated network from the madate which does not really serve any useful passanger needs. Therefore it is not surprising to see a decline in the network. But... where there was a good case, funds were invested. I do not accept the Nazis theory- crap is the word in English for that. Do you agree? and.. pls send me the article - doc in Word and in Hebrew would be fine- I can read it! Regards Yoram _________________________________________________________________ Stay in touch with absent friends - get MSN Messenger http://www.msn.co.uk/messenger