Tel Aviv Savidor Central railway station
Tel Aviv Savidor Central Station תחנת תל אביב סבידור מרכז تل أبيب مركز سافيدور | |
|---|---|
| Israel Railways | |
 | |
| General information | |
| Location | 10 Al Parashat Drakhim St., Tel Aviv |
| Coordinates | 32°05′1.74″N 34°47′53.7″E / 32.0838167°N 34.798250°E |
| Platforms | 3 |
| Tracks | 6 |
| Construction | |
| Parking | 3000 payable spaces |
| Bicycle facilities | 50 spaces |
| Accessible | Yes |
| History | |
| Opened | November 3, 1954 |
| Rebuilt | 1988 |
| Passengers | |
| 2010 | 9,722,274 |
Tel Aviv Savidor Central Railway Station (Template:Lang-he-n, Tel Aviv Savidor Merkaz, Arabic: تل أبيب مركز سافيدور) is the main central train station of Tel Aviv. It is one of the main railway hubs of Israel, located on the eastern side of Tel Aviv, at the border between Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan. The station was opened to the public in November 1954 under the name Tel Aviv Central.
The station serves most rail lines in Israel and has 6 passenger platforms—more than any other station in Israel and is also the busiest in terms of passenger movements, serving a daily average of 49,229 passengers in September 2013. Despite not being a terminus for most lines, it serves as a terminal for travel to all parts of Israel. The station is located next to the 2000 Terminal in the west and the Diamond Exchange District (of Ramat Gan) in the east. Like all railway stations in Tel Aviv, the tracks lie between the southbound and northbound lanes of Ayalon Highway. The tracks are connected by escalators, stairways and elevators for disabled persons to a bridge which connects them with the terminal building (on the Tel Aviv side) and the Diamond Exchange District (on the Ramat Gan side). By 2018, an underground station of the future Red Line light rail will be built at the site.
It is named after Menachem Savidor, Israel Railways' chairman between 1954–1964 and later the speaker of the Knesset.
History
The railway station was originally the terminus of the Coastal railway line, which opened on November 3, 1954 and reached what was then the northern fringe of Tel Aviv. For the next four decades, it handled only trains to the north, therefore it was colloquially known as the Tel Aviv North station. This name is misleading though, because "Tel Aviv North" was a previous name of the Bnei Brak Railway Station. Railway traffic to the south of the city was provided through Tel Aviv South Railway Station which was not connected with Tel Aviv Center.
Until 1980 the head office of Israel Railways was located at the Haifa Central Station. Tzvi Tzafriry, the general manager of Israel Railways, decided to move the head office to Tel Aviv Savidor.[1]
In its initial configuration the station's platforms were located directly north of the terminal building, to the west of their present location. In 1988, when the Ayalon railway was continued further south, the station's platforms were moved to their current location, and a pedestrian bridge was built to connect them to the terminal building. The station with its relocated tracks was opened to the public on January 10, 1988, and the official opening took place on May 3 of the same year.[2] In 1993 the station ceased being a terminal station when the Ayalon section of the coastal railway was extended to link with the Jaffa–Jerusalem railway in southern Tel Aviv. At that point, the little-used Tel Aviv South station (which unlike Tel Aviv Central was not located on the Ayalon railway itself) was closed for passengers and services operating to it were routed to the more conveniently-located Tel Aviv Central station instead. Between the closing of the Tel Aviv South Railway Station and the opening of Tel Aviv HaShalom Railway Station in 1996, Tel Aviv Central was the only active passenger railway station in Tel Aviv. Nowadays, Tel Aviv Central is one of four active passenger railway stations located within Tel Aviv's municipal borders.[citation needed]
In May 2009 Yediot Aharonot said that Israel Railways was planning to move the head office to Lod. In response the railway company said this was necessary to centralize the various offices around Israel, to use a more central location in the country and to have more inexpensive land. The company said this was also central to a major railway station.[1]
References
- ^ a b "From press release of May." (Press Release May 2009) (Archive) Israel Railways. Retrieved on 9 April 2013.
- ^ Cotterell, Paul (December 1989). Rothschild, Walter (ed.). "All Change at Tel Aviv". HaRakevet (6).
External links
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