41 Stations From Gilo to Mount Scopus on Jerusalem's Green Line

Jerusalem is taking what the National Public Transportation Authority called "giant steps" toward a "historic transportation revolution": connecting the red and green lines of its light rail to create the first light rail network of its kind in Israel, according to the announcement of 6 August 2025.

On completion, the authority said, the Green Line (the capital's second light rail line) will stretch about 20 kilometres from the Gilo neighbourhood in the south to the Mount Scopus campus in the north, passing through Malha, the city centre and the Government Building, with 41 stations. The first part of the line is expected to open to the public as early as 2026, with two new service lines connecting hundreds of thousands of residents and visitors to the city's rail network.

What already exists

Jerusalem has run light rail since 2011, when the Red Line entered service. Reference summaries of the system put that line at 22.5 kilometres with 35 stops; it began free operation in August 2011 and full revenue service that December. Annual ridership climbed from about 36.4 million in 2015 to about 42.5 million in 2017, and by 2019 the line was carrying roughly 150,000 people a day.

That figure has since grown. The Times of Israel reported, also on 6 August 2025, that the Red Line was carrying about 200,000 people a day and that nine central stations had been closed for several months to allow the physical connection to the Green Line to be built. The same report said the Green Line, running from Mount Scopus to Gilo, was expected to begin operating in early 2026, consistent with the authority's own timetable.

Why "network" is the operative word

A single line is a corridor; two lines that interchange are a network, and the difference shows up in where people can actually get to without a car. Jerusalem's plan does not stop at two. A Blue Line linking the Ramot neighbourhood to Gilo began construction in 2025 and is expected to be finished around 2030, according to the Times of Israel, with work under way on the Emek Refaim section.

The build-out is also meant to change driving behaviour rather than simply add to the options. The city plans to charge drivers who enter Jerusalem once the light rail lines are complete, a step the Times of Israel reported is at least seven years away and probably longer. "Within a few years, I promise a real revolution, and Jerusalem will be the first city to get rid of traffic jams," Mayor Moshe Lion said.

The comparison across the country

Israel's investment in urban rail is recent and concentrated. Sector reference material records the Tel Aviv Red Line opening in 2023 with 34 stations, further Tel Aviv lines under construction, a Haifa–Nazareth tram-train in development and a Be'er Sheva light rail approved in 2023. Jerusalem's claim is not to have the first light rail line (it already had that) but to be first to operate an interconnected network.

What is still unclear

The authority did not say which section of the Green Line opens first, where the two new service lines will run, or what fares and frequencies will apply. It gave no cost figure and no completion date for the full 20-kilometre line, and it did not say when the nine closed central Red Line stations would reopen.