Jerusalem now has street cars that run through the city. This light rail train system was just being constructed when we visited the city five years ago. You can scroll down on this post of art in Israel to see how the train system was envisioned in a mural. Batya has written about the light rail system on her blog, and Sharon has a post on Real Jerusalem Streets on the day the light rail opened in 2011.
The photo above is near the central bus station in Jerusalem, taken in May 2013. My cousin told me there will soon be a fast train from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem that will stop near here – but unfortunately, it won’t go through Beit Shemesh, where my cousins live (they do have a slow train from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem that stops in Beit Shemesh). I have more photos of the light rail and section of Jerusalem near the central bus station as well as the Ben Yehudah mall. Hope to show you in an upcoming post.
Thursday Challenge is HARD (Stone, Steel, Cement, Glass, Durable, Difficult,…).
Thanks for the mention.
Batya, thank you for teaching me the ins and outs of living in Israel and getting about in Jerusalem.
From what I saw yesterday on a special tour with Mayor Nir Barkat, that fast train will be quite awhile in coming. Plan to post photos of “new” Cinema City next week and that area where the train will come.
Sharon, thank you for keeping us informed!
Srteet cars seem to be coming back into fashion all over the world. I like travelling in them. The one in Hong Kong is cheap and good fun, but slow.
I might do some research on the light rail in Jerusalem and put it in a post. I have a number of photos that would fit this topic. I read on the blog Legal Insurrection (the blog owner is visiting Israel currently) that the Jerusalem light rail was partly produced/designed by French companies.
I believe there are some very good French companies in transport: trains and planes come to mind.
Beautiful perspective!
Interesting note – now that you mention it, it does have the classic train tracks fading into the distance composition.
San Francisco has street cars and, of course, its cable cars which are a national historic landmark. I am living in Mumbai for six months – haven’t seen any street cars here….thousands of auto rickshaws, though, trying to ply their trade in the torrential monsoon rains.
My post is at:
http://www.rnsane.blogspot.in/2013/07/photo-them-for-thursday-hard-keshava.html
San Francisco is well-known for its streetcars!
Love the leading lines in this images. And it is certainly industrially HARD!
Yup, an awful lot of concrete and other hard stuff here.
There’s been talk of a light rail train system to line the cities in my part of the world. I wish it would happen.
It was certainly easier getting around in Jerusalem by light rail than it was by car (we did that really briefly five years ago – felt like Thanksgiving traffic in NYC).
Good luck with getting the light rail system.
Lovely photo! Thank you for sharing!
Public transportation is so important…..