The Israeli Ministry of Transport has approved the planning of a metro network for Jerusalem and, together with the Jerusalem city council, is preparing a tender to draw up the plans. With a predicted increase in the number of passengers in the greater Jerusalem area to around 4 million per working day, the government has recognised the need for a mass transport system. So far, Jerusalem has a Light Rail Transit (LRT) line and an underground section of the main A1 Link line from Modiin and Gush Dan. An extension of the line to serve the centre of Jerusalem and plans to build eight more LRT lines are no longer considered sufficient to meet future demand. The first plans for a metro in Jerusalem began five years ago at the Hebrew University. The designs envisaged three to four metro lines. It is expected that the metro in Jerusalem will be built at a depth of 30 to 40 m, with some sections at ground level. The city is built on limestone cliffs and the challenges of tunneling near archaeological and religious sites mean that the first line is expected to take 15 years to complete.
