Tag Archives: Jerusalem

Bus Photo of the Month: June 2023

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MAN NL-313

Location: Jaffa Road, Jerusalem, Israel
Operator of Vehicle: Egged
Date of Photo: July 7, 2022

Today, green Egged buses such as this one will operate on Jerusalem’s Route 3 between the Central Bus Station and Western Wall.  As of tomorrow, that will no longer be the case, as a relatively new company called Extra takes over the route.  If you are reading this from somewhere such as Europe or Israel, the idea of a route shifting from one operator to another is probably one with which you are familiar.  In this type of model, a government agency (in this case, the Israeli Ministry of Transportation) determines routes and service levels and operating companies, such as Egged, Superbus, and Extra bid on tenders to provide the service.  Conversely, in North America, transit agencies determine the routes and service levels and often operate the services themselves with their own buses and personnel.  Even if an agency contracts with an operator to provide service (such as Loudoun County Transit in Northern Virginia, which is operated by Keolis North America), the vehicles are owned by the transit agency and their appearance remains identical, even if the contracted operator changes.  Not so in Israel.  With the change to Extra as the route’s operator, passengers will be on brand new buses with a different livery and different drivers.  While there are instances where buses get transferred from the prior operator to the new one or staff leaves one company and joins another, neither is a given.  It is just one of many differences in how transit operates in different places around the world.  

For more photos of Egged MAN NL-313 buses, please click here.  

Bus Photo of the Month: November 2021

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MAN NG-363F 44420

Location: David Remez at the Old Train Station, Jerusalem, Israel
Operator of Vehicle: Egged
Date of Photo: May 25, 2018

In many places, bus systems are operated on a tender basis by various companies.  In these systems, a transportation ministry or some other oversight entity puts out a call for bids from interested parties to operate the service.  The idea is that the cost of operating the service will be lower if it is operated by a transportation company rather than directly by the oversight agency.  Sometimes, a company is able to maintain its tender for many years, and it is notable when a change in operator occurs.  

Egged had a near monopoly on bus services within Israel for many years, though in the past twenty years or so, many other companies have won tenders that Egged historically operated.  However, Jerusalem intracity service remained with Egged, as it had dating back to some of Egged’s predecessor companies that merged when Egged was formed.  This Friday, the second phase of transitioning some of Jerusalem’s intracity service to other companies will take effect.  In July, Superbus took over four routes serving the Old City and started operating a new route to the Old City as well.  This Friday, three new routes will be established, and two routes, 74 and 75, will transfer from Egged to Superbus.  The 74 and 75 are not nearly as “historical” as some other transport routes in the city, but the 74 is notable for being the first “rapid” route to be launched in the city back in 2008.  Seeing Superbus vehicles on this route, rather than Egged vehicles, is certainly going to take some getting used to.

For more photos of Jerusalem MAN NG-363F Buses, please click here.

Rail Photo of the Month: February 2021

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Alstom Citadis 302 008Alstom 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.

Rail Photo of the Month: July 2019

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Alstom Citadis 302 020

Alstom Citadis 302 020

Location: Derech Yafo (Jaffa Road) at Shlomtzion HaMalka, Jerusalem, Israel
Operator of Vehicle: Citipass
Date of Photo: June 2, 2016

Summer in Jerusalem means there’s a pretty good chance there’s a festival or two taking place in the evenings, and my favorite of them all is currently ongoing.  The Jerusalem Light Festival, which has taken place each summer since 2009, will be illuminating the Old City of Jerusalem through Thursday evening, July 4.  As a photographer, it is lots of fun to wander through the Old City and around its walls, capturing the dazzling displays which are so different than what one typically sees when traversing these areas any other week of the year.  In 2016, the festival extended down Jaffa Road towards the present day city center, and some of the the light rail trains themselves got in on the fun by having strings of lights placed along their rooflines.  Here is a photo of one of those trains passing by a model Eiffel Tower.  If you’re able to catch one of the remaining nights of the festival, I highly recommend it!

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

Bus Photo of the Month: August 2018

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Yutong ZK6121HQ

Yutong ZK6121HQ

Location: Sheva Hayim at Sderot Golda, Jerusalem, Israel
Operator of Vehicle: Afikim
Date of Photo: May 25, 2018

For many years, the Israeli bus scene has been dominated by European manufacturers.  For much of the 21st century, this has meant that most buses are built by companies such as Mercedes-Benz, MAN, Volvo, and VDL.  However, this is starting to change.  In recent years, Israeli bus companies have begun ordering buses from two Chinese manufacturers.  Yutong, which was founded in 1963, makes buses such as the one seen here.  Golden Dragon, another Chinese manufacturer founded in 1992, has also delivered units to Israeli companies.  Chinese buses aren’t new to the Middle East, as many of Israel’s neighbors have been ordering Chinese buses for some time.  However, they are new to Israel and part of a rapidly diversifying bus scene as other companies such as Solaris break in to this market as well.

For more photos of Jerusalem area Afikim buses, please click here.

New Photos from Israel & Washington, DC Added

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VDL Bus SB230 76273
The summer travel season is well underway, and photos from my adventures in May and June are now available for your viewing pleasure here on Oren’s Transit Page.

Most of the new content can be found in the Israel section, where you will find new photos of the Jerusalem Light Rail, Egged buses in Jerusalem (including the Solaris Urbino 18 unit currently on trial), Egged Ta’avura buses in Jerusalem, Afikim buses in Jerusalem, Kavim buses in Jerusalem, and Superbus buses in both Jerusalem and Tiberias.  If you haven’t been to Israel lately, with the entry of the Golden Dragon and Yutong bus models from China and Solaris buses from Poland in to the Israeli market, there is quite a bit of diversity in Israeli operators’ fleets beyond the typical MAN and Mercedes-Benz buses that have dominated the scene for years.  You can also find photos of the exterior of the new Jerusalem High Speed Railway station (the interior of the much delayed station will be open to the public this fall if you believe the latest rumors).

In addition, new photos of various WMATA equipment types have been added as well.

Here is the complete list of pages with new photos in this update:

Oren’s Reading List: Riding an entire system in a day

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Bombardier Mark II Car 204
The Vancouver Sun reports that today, a man named Stephen Quinlan intends to ride the entire Vancouver SkyTrain system in about 3 hours, in order to set the Guinness World Record for achieving the feat.  You can read about his preparations here.  I made no effort to set a record while doing so, but I did ride the entire Skytrain in a single day on August 7, 2007, back when it only had two lines and fewer stations.  It isn’t the first system I rode in an entire day, either.  The largest system I rode in a single day is the Washington, DC Metrorail (in 2002, when it only had 83 stations), but I have also explored the entire TTC Subway (2007), San Juan Tren Urbano (2016), Glasgow Underground (2005), Rome Metro (2008), Jerusalem Light Rail (on opening day in 2011) and Haifa Carmelit (2007) in a single day, and did the Tren Urbano, Jerusalem Light Rail, and Carmelit on a single fare.  Needless to say, it is a much easier feat to achieve on a smaller system such as Haifa’s (the smallest subway in the world) as opposed to a city such as London or New York, but that is to be expected.  

Have you ever tried to ride an entire system in one day?  Were you successful?  Were you trying to set any records?  Feel free to post your answers in the comments below!

Oren’s Reading List is an occasional feature on The Travelogue in which I share articles that I’ve read that might also be of interest to the readers of this website.

Rail Photo of the Month: January 2018

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Alstom Citadis 302 003

Alstom Citadis 302 003

Location: Hatzanchanim Street, Jerusalem, Israel
Operator of Vehicle: Citipass
Date of Photo: June 2, 2016

Jerusalem has been in the news quite a bit lately.  Despite what you may see in the press, life goes on in what you would likely consider to be a normal way in this extraordinary complex city, and thousands use the city’s public transportation system to travel between home, work, school, shopping, and other destinations.  The light rail line that opened in 2011 is a rolling melting pot used by all the sectors of the city’s population.  At pretty much any time of day at any point along the line, you’ll be crammed in to a car with secular Jews, ultra-Orthodox Jews, Arabs, Palestinians, and tourists.  The light rail line serves a variety of different neighborhoods, including the Arab neighborhoods of Shuafat and Beit Hanina, as well as the city center.  While there is a notable security presence and the Alstom Citadis 302 rolling stock used in Jerusalem had some special modifications made to it in the interest of counter-terrorism, aside from a brief service suspension due to safety issues in 2014, incidents of violence on the light rail have been few and far between.  Jerusalem is a fascinating city that should be on your potential traveling destinations for a host of reasons, and if you’re a transit fan, the light rail gives you an additional one.  

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

Bus Photo of the Month: August 2017

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Mercedes-Benz O 405 G 10652

Mercedes-Benz O 405 G 10652

Location: Derech Jericho near Derech Sha’ar HaArayot, Jerusalem, Israel
Operator of Vehicle: Egged
Date of Photo: April 2, 2010

Yesterday, we visited the 9th Avenue Station in New York, and specifically, a photo showing both a train route and a track alignment that are no longer in use.  The same evolution of routes over time can also happen with buses.  In some regards, it is a bit easier with a bus, since it doesn’t have tracks, so changing an alignment to make or change a route is easier.  However, that doesn’t meant this sort of change can’t be difficult.  This photo shows a Mercedes-Benz O 405 G nearing the end of the number 2 route in Jerusalem, Israel.  The 2’s route was so well known that people who had only been to Jerusalem once knew where it went.  However, in 2012, as part of the restructuring of the bus routes following the opening of the Jerusalem Light Rail, it was discontinued and replaced by two different routes, neither of which carries the number 2 designation.  The 2 is so venerable that when other proposed routes needed a number assigned to them, 2 was not considered as an option because these proposed routes wouldn’t go anywhere near the Western Wall where the original number 2 terminated.  (As an aside, the bus model shown in the photo has also been entirely withdrawn from service.)  

Are there any bus routes in a city that you live in or are familiar with where the number is so strongly associated with a single route?

For more photos of Egged Jerusalem’s Mercedes-Benz O 405 G buses, please click here.

 

Jerusalem Meets Paris

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Alstom Citadis 302 001 on Derech Yafo (Jaffa Road) at Shlomtzion HaMalka, June 2, 2016

The Jerusalem Light Festival has been taking place each summer since 2011.  Each night for just over a week, exhilarating light displays are set up throughout the Old City.  This year, the festival extended up Jaffa Road, the historic main thoroughfare through the newer, western part of the city that now also serves as the right of way for the Jerusalem Light Rail route through the city center.  One of the installations on Jaffa Road was a miniature Eiffel Tower.  Since the light rail operates using French built Alstom Citadis 302 vehicles, it seemed only natural to try getting a photo of the Eiffel Tower replica and a light rail train in the same shot.  This is where my title for the photo, and this post, came from.

Jaffa Road has become a great pedestrian space since road was closed to vehicular traffic and the light rail was constructed on the thoroughfare, so it was difficult to get a shot without pedestrians blocking either the train, the Eiffel Tower model, or both.  Furthermore, the fact it was night meant that I needed to be using settings that ran the risk of a blurry photo if I wasn’t steady while I operated the camera and as the train went by.  (This photo was taken with an ISO speed of 800, a shutter speed of 1/50 second, and an f-stop of 3.5.)  Despite the fact it was about midnight when I was there, trains were running fairly frequently, and I had several opportunities to try getting the photo I desired.  This is the best of my attempts, and I think it is quite a good one.

Incidentally, this isn’t my only photo of the light rail with a connection to this year’s light festival.  Several trains had a band of lights installed along their rooflines and I got a few photos of those trains, too.  One of those photos can be seen below.

Alstom Citadis 302 037 on HaTsanhanim between Damascus Gate and Kikar Tzahal, June 2, 2016

For more photos of the Jerusalem Light Rail, please click here.  Oren’s Transit Page also has photos from some of the other cities around the world that operate the Alstom Citadis 302, including Paris, Madrid, and Rotterdam.