Abstract
IN the Electrician of January 5 a description is given of a projected railway system for Palestine radiating from Jerusalem. Four new lines will radiate from a terminus at Jerusalem located outside the city on the northern side and east of the Damascus Gate. Possibly recent economic developments in the country, the most important of which is the new harbour at Haifa on the Mediterranean, has tended to emphasise the isolated position of Jerusalem so far as railway facilities are concerned. The northern line is to be 67 miles long, starting from the Jerusalem terminus, going through the Jordan valley, where the line descends to 500 feet below the Mediterranean level, finally getting to Tul Keram Junction on the main Haifa-Cairo line. The eastern line (55 miles) would run from the terminus, crossing the River Jordan, passing through the Kalaat ez Zerka Station on the Hejaz railway to Ammam, the capital of Transjordan and the headquarters of the British Government's High Commissioner. The southern railway (50 miles) would run through Hebron to Beersheba. Finally, there would be a line (18 miles) from Wadi Fara on the northern line through Jericho to the potash works on the shore of the Dead Sea. It is proposed to build a power station and a reservoir in Transjordan and another on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea to provide the electric current for operating the four railways. The latter station would be necessary if an extension railway to the Red Sea should materialise. Some years ago this project was discussed, the terminals of the line being Haifa and the ancient port of Akaba on the Red Sea. This would place Jerusalem on a direct sea-to-sea railway from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. Possibly it might revive the ancient and prosperous traffic route from the Red Sea to the Levant of the times of Solomon and the Romans.
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Projected Electric Railways in Palestine. Nature 133, 169 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/133169c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/133169c0