The cabinet on Sunday, 3 Sivan, during a festive cabinet meeting held at the Kosel in honor of the 50th anniversary of Jerusalem’s reunification, approved the recommendation of Tourism Minister Yariv Levin to construct a cable car tourism project to the Kosel.
The government approved the first phase of the project that is being led by the Tourism Ministry and Jerusalem Development Authority. The initial budget of NIS 15 million will come from the ministry, and the total estimated cost of the project will stand at about NIS 200 million.
With the approval of his recommendation, Tourism Minister Yariv Levin noted that “The future cable car will change the face of Jerusalem, allow easy and convenient access for tourists and visitors to the Kosel and will serve as an exceptional tourist attraction. There is no more appropriate and exciting time than this – 50 years since the reunification of Jerusalem – to launch this revolutionary project.”
The cable car, which will run from the First Station, via Har HaZeisim to the Dung Gate (Shar HaAshpot), will offer a solution to problems related to the inaccessibility of the Kosel. Access is currently via narrow, winding and very crowded routes. The cable car will provide easy, quick and convenient access to the approximately 130,000 tourists and visitors who converge on the site every week.
The route of the cable car will be about 1.4 kilometers, carrying up to 40 cars with up to 10 passengers in each. The cable car can serve about 3000 visitors an hour in each direction and will travel at speeds of up to 21 kilometers an hour. According to professional estimates, the cable car will begin operating during 2021.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
If successful (safe, popular, reliable, sustainable/affordable, etc), I wonder if the ministry isn’t considering it the first of what might become a network of cable cars as a mass-transit solution.
Of course, one would hope that the result will preserve the esthetics of the region. That would be a sizeable achievement in and of itself.
Then, of course, there’s the unfortunate reality of those who would target anything as conspicuous as an overhead cable car system for terrorism.
Last, but certainly not least, is the issue of Shabbos/Yom Tov. I’d be delighted to hear that they’ve committed to operate in accordance with halacha, but I’m not placing any bets. I’m not even going to guess how certain groups might react to men and women riding in the same cable car.
blubuh you are right to worry; they are running it from ‘First Station’ , a secular enclave where they have all the mechalel shabbos restaurants , performances on shabbos etc. i think this cable car is aimed at secular and non jewish tourists not the dati/frum crowd