Tel Aviv Light Rail

Not to be confused with Tel Aviv Metro.

Dankal Tel Aviv Light Rail
רכבת קלה של דנקל תל אביב‎
قطار تل أبيب الخفيف‎
Tel Aviv Light Rail-branded Mock-up trainset of the red line standing outside the light rail depot
Tel Aviv Light Rail-branded Mock-up trainset of the red line standing outside the light rail depot
Overview
OwnerNTA
Area servedTel Aviv metropolitan area
Transit typeLight rail interchange Light rail
Number of lines3 (Red Line, Green Line, Purple Line)
Number of stations34 (Red Line), 58 (Green Line), 43 (Purple Line)
Daily ridershipRed Line – 100,000[1]
HeadquartersTel Aviv
Websitehttps://www.dankal.co.il/
Operation
Began operationAugust 18, 2023
Operator(s)tevel metro
Rolling stockCRRC (Red Line), Alstom Citadis XO5 (Green Line), CAF Urbos 3 (Purple Line)
Technical
Track gauge1,435 mm
Top speed80 km/h (50 mph) in underground sections
Map of the planned network as of 2020. The Red Line is in service; the Green and Purple lines are under construction; the rest is subject to change.

The Tel Aviv Light Rail (Hebrew: הרכבת הקלה בתל אביב, Romanized: Ha'rakēvet Ha'kalā Be'Tel Avīv, Arabic: قطار تل أبيب الخفيف, Romanized: Qītar Tall ʾAbīb Al-khāfifa), also known as Dankal (Hebrew: דנקל, Arabic: دانكال) is a mass transit system for Gush Dan, the Tel Aviv metropolitan area in central Israel. The system will include different modes of mass transit, including rapid transit (metro), light rail transit (LRT), and bus rapid transit (BRT). Overseen by NTA Metropolitan Mass Transit System Ltd., a government agency, the project will complement the intercity and suburban rail network operated by Israel Railways.

As of 2023, two LRT lines are under construction and one available to the public. Work on the Red Line, the first in the project, started on September 21, 2011, following years of preparatory works,[2] and was opened on August 18, 2023, after numerous delays.[3][4] Construction of the Purple Line started in December 2018; work on the Green Line began in January 2019.[5]

The network was originally planned to be called "MetroTLV" but was changed to "Dankal".[6] The name comes from the metropolitan area of Tel Aviv, Gush Dan, and "easy" ("kal", Hebrew: קל).

  1. ^ Zagrizak, Asaf (September 20, 2023). "Tel Aviv light rail completes first month of operations". Globes. Retrieved September 20, 2023.
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