Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday morning, released a statement regarding new and improved rail service for southern Israel.

“I spoke a short while ago with Beersheva Mayor Rubik Danilovich. He was very, very excited because today we are dedicating the high-speed rail link, and now it will be 55 minutes from Beersheva to Tel Aviv and from Tel Aviv to Beersheva. This is down from 76 minutes and we will yet lower it to 45 minutes.

This is a revolution that we always dreamed about. We are carrying it out. It seems to me that this idea started when Silvan Shalom was finance minister and I am proud of the fact that we in this government, with our energetic transportation minister, are realizing this, with support from the finance ministry. This is huge. At the same time, today we will also dedicate the high-speed line from Kiryat Gat to Tel Aviv – 32 minutes. I remind you that this takes much longer than most US and European cities, from the large cities – to go from the city center to the outskirts, than it takes today to go from central Tel Aviv to Kiryat Gat, and even to Beersheva. This is a great cultural, social and national revolution that has to do with population dispersal, creating new possibilities and growth – I think that we can definitely be proud here that we are finally joining the periphery to the center, and the center to the periphery, and this has tremendous consequences, and therefore we are pleased to see the fruit of Government policy.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)