Transportation officials inaugurate new Jerusalem fast train to ‘connect the country’

Israel’s top transportation officials gather underground in central Jerusalem to formally inaugurate the long-awaited Jerusalem-Tel Aviv fast train.

The direct line between Israel’s two major metropolitan centers has been under construction for 18 years, and its planned opening on Saturday night comes 11 years after its originally scheduled completion date.

“After years of hard work and struggle, Jerusalem is connecting to Tel Aviv,” says Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who as transportation minister from 2009 until earlier this year oversaw much of the construction work.

“I call this the King David track, which connects the City of David to the rest of the country,” he says. “This will enormously strengthen Jerusalem and the country as a whole.”

Current Transportation Minister Betzalel Smotrich also praises the new line’s power to connect.

“With all the talk of a ‘first Israel’ and a ‘second Israel,’” he says, a reference to the public debate on economic inequality, “and the ‘State of Tel Aviv’ and the ‘State of Jerusalem,’ here we are building a bridge. With all our disagreements, we can’t allow ourselves to become divided. We will instead build new roads and new railways, because we are one people.”