Rishon Lezion to finance Red Line light rail extension

The Rishon Lezion Municipality will pay for part of the extension by marketing land above the planned underground depot.

"Globes" can reveal that following the cancelation of the huge park and ride car park planned at the Morasha Interchange northeast of Tel Aviv, the Ministry of Transport will finance the Tel Aviv Metropolitan region light rail Red Line southern extension from Bat Yam to Rishon Lezion. In an unprecedented development, the Rishon Lezion Municipality will also help finance the project through marketing land.

As early as 2020, Minister of Transport Miri Regev, in her first term in office, promised to extend the Red Line to Rishon Lezion. Top officials at the Ministries of Transport and Finance also supported the project because of the high demand predicted for it. Two years later, during the term of Merav Michaeli as Minister of Transport, NIS 100 million was allocated to extend the line by four stations to the Moshe Dayan interchange, where a transport hub will be built. Then, at the beginning of Regev's current term, the budget was diverted to road construction.

Another NIS 1.5 billion

As part of the planning, a depot, maintenance center, and train parking complex will be built underground. Above the depot, the municipality will market land and will participate in financing the line. Until now local authorities have not financed national projects in their jurisdiction. Industry estimates are that, in addition to government funding of NIS 1.5 billion for the construction of the line, the municipality will add between NIS 700 million and NIS 1.5 billion from marketing the land.

The municipality's participation in the project has almost no precedent in Israel. The mayor of Ramat Hasharon also proposed participating in the construction of a railway station in his city through the marketing of land, but the station in question has no economic justification, unlike the Red Line extension to Rishon LeZion.

The agreements, which should be reached in the coming weeks, follow harsh criticism of the Ministry of Transport by Rishon Lezion Mayor Raz Kinstlich. He told the municipal corporations conference earlier this month, "The Red Line should have been extended from Bat Yam to Rishon LeZion, but in a decision that no one in the Ministry of Transport understands, they decided to stop it,"

He added, "We announced that we would stop land marketing. If there is no Red Line, no permits will be issued and no marketing will be allowed because it is simply impossible without mass transportation. I hope they will be wise and understand that real solutions need to be provided for transportation and not promise the heads of authorities a road here and a road there to make them smile."

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But now that the Morasha Interchange park and ride car park on Road 5 has been cancelled, the budget for that project is being transferred to pay for the Red Line extension.

The Rishon Lezion Municipality said, "We see the Red Line as one of the most important tasks for the future and development of the city. The depot in its original form was supposed to be above ground, but today in every civilized country in the world the depot is underground. After countless meetings between the municipality, the Ministry of Finance and NTA, a solution was found to sink the depot below ground and add construction. The cost of the underground depot is estimated at many millions of shekels, and the municipality will allow a division of the revenues from these lots between itself and the State of Israel, for an additional station in close proximity to the Elef complex, excavations for the depot, and extending the Red Line."

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on April 23, 2025.

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