Alstom Citadis 302 008

Location: HaDavidka Station, Jerusalem, Israel
Operator of Vehicle: Citipass
Date of Photo: December 16, 2013

Despite the trend of milder winters in the Washington, DC area, scenes such as the one I featured in the Bus Photo of the Month for February 2021 aren’t all that uncommon.  You’ll find plenty of photos of DC transit operations in the snow on this website (as well as others).  On the other hand, significant snow in Jerusalem is a much more uncommon occurrence.  Like Washington, Jerusalem has had more mild winters recently.  Usually, the city would get one dusting of snow each winter, which would grind the Israeli capital to a halt as the city’s snow removal infrastructure borders on non-existent.  After several winters with no snow accumulation at all, there were significant snowstorms in both January and December of 2013.  In this photo, the light rail right-of-way through the center of the city has been cleared to allow train service to resume, mostly by pushing it to the sides of the tracks.  As a result, the accumulation appears to be much larger than the actual 16 to 28 inches (40 to 70 centimeters) that actually fell, but regardless, this photo captured a sight one rarely sees most winters in Jerusalem.  

For more photos of Jerusalem Light Rail Rolling Stock, please click here.