A Jewish Grandmother : Jerusalem High Speed Train

Sunday, October 14, 2018

Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #30, Speedily Out of Order at New Train Station

This is a continuation in my ongoing series about public toilets in Jerusalem. See #29, #28, #27, #26, #25, #24, #23, #22, #21, #20, #19, #18, #17, #16, #15a, #15, #14, #13, #12, #11, #10, #9, #8, #7, #6, #5, Saved by The First Station aka #4a, #4, #3, #2 and #1

In my post about my adventure on the new Jerusalem High Speed Train, I mentioned that my friend and I found that getting back up to street level in Jerusalem was difficult. We couldn't find "up escalators," and there were terrible crowds trying to get on the much too few elevators immediately after the train arrived.

While looking for "up escalators" I noticed the public toilets, so of course I had to try out the ladies loo.

The good news was that there was toilet paper, but the bad news was that it didn't flush. The bowl was full of paper, and I couldn't get it to flush at all. The mechanism was already broken, just a few weeks after the train service and station had opened to the public.

I should have tried the train's WC, but I was too busy trying to take pictures of the countryside as we sped by. There was very little time, since the entire ride was just over twenty 20 minutes.

If you can update the information about the public toilets in the new Jerusalem train station, please comment, thanks.

Friday, October 05, 2018

Adventure on The New Jerusalem High Speed Train

One great advantage of our age and being retired is the opportunity for spontaneity. There are very few strictly scheduled events to worry about. After a lovely lunch in Center 1 with friends from all over the world, my longtime buddy and I decided to take the lightrail to the center of Jerusalem. Since we had a few minutes before the trolly's arrival, she wanted to ask some questions at the nearby Navon Train Station of the new Jerusalem High Speed Train. The young man at Information informed us that "today," meaning yesterday, we didn't need advance reservations to take the new train to Ben Gurion Airport. All we needed was our trusty Rav-kav.

And so, within seconds, we were on our way. The young friendly help staff assisted us in "purchasing" our free roundtrip tickets. We're still young enough to enjoy an unplanned adventure.

We had read about the Jerusalem High Speed Train, which like when the lightrail was new, is offering free rides. I must admit that I had been nervous about the long escalator ride underground. I'm still traumatized by old wooden escalators in the London Underground at Kings Cross to the Northern Line, which I had taken forty-three years ago. I must tell you that these new Jerusalem escalators are wonderful. I felt very safe and didn't feel any ear pressure when we got deep underground to the tracks.

In keeping with the festive mood of the pre-opening of the Jerusalem High Speed Train, we were given little chocolates. It was clear that many of the passengers, including young families, were on the train as a lark, like us, but there were also quite a few who appeared to be legitimate airplane travelers. They had lots of luggage with them.

We sat in the upper part of the train and looked out of the window, but it was disappointing to discover that a large portion of the route was in tunnels. We could see at times that we were speeding much more quickly than the cars of the parallel road.

The biggest time-waster was when we got back to Jerusalem and couldn't find an up escalator. All there seemed to be were a few much-too-small elevators. They were crowded and slow in coming. I think that only one was actually working. If that's so, then Gd willing it should be easier to get up once they're all fully functioning.

For people who live in or near Jerusalem, the Jerusalem High Speed Train is great. To and from Shiloh it isn't. We're actually as close to the airport as we are to Jerusalem. That's another reason why I enjoyed yesterday's adventure. I may never have another real opportunity to take the train.