Jerusalem light rail line between Binyanei Hauma and Malcha to open in May, mayor says

The first portion of Jerusalem’s second light rail line, running between the International Convention Center (Binyanei Hauma) and the Malcha neighborhood, will become fully operational in four months, Mayor Moshe Lion says.

The full route, known as the Green Line, will eventually stretch from Mount Scopus in the north of the city to the Gilo neighborhood in the south. It is expected to eventually carry 400,000 people a day, easing traffic in the city.

The first phase of the Green Line launch will begin in May, after testing on the line began this week, Lion tells the Jerusalem Future Plans Conference, organized by the Nadlan Center in collaboration with the Jerusalem municipality. That portion will include the Binyanei Hauma area, the Givat Ram campus of Hebrew University, Givat Mordechai, and Pat.

Several months after that, in July or August, the light rail will extend down to Gilo, and a year after that, in the summer of 2027, the entire line will be completed, he says.

Jerusalem’s first light rail line, known as the Red Line, was launched in 2011 and is seen as highly successful, with more than 200,000 daily riders on the route from Ein Kerem to Neve Yaakov.

Construction of the third line, known as the Blue Line, which will connect the Ramot neighborhood to Gilo, began this year, and is expected to be completed in 2030. The 31-kilometer (19-mile) route will include an underground tunnel and access to a new Israel Railways train station with lines to the country’s center.

Jerusalem has high hopes that this network will help it to become the first city to “get out of traffic jams,” as Lion has put it, and provide the transportation infrastructure to support the city’s rapid growth.

“This is a transportation revolution in the city,” Lion says.