AGREED: THE CENTRAL STATION IN TEL AVI WILL CONTINUE TO OPERATE IN THE COMING YEARS

The Ministry of Transportation and the Tel Aviv Municipality have announced that the new central station in the city will continue to operate in the coming years. According to the agreement between the parties, the evacuation of the station will be completed within four years. Within about two years, about 50% of the activity at the station will be transferred to bus terminals to be built on Harash Street and on the Tel Aviv-Holon border.
Sources involved in the matter doubted that the plan would actually be implemented within the defined time periods, and estimated that the activity at the existing station would continue, even if to a reduced extent. Tonight at midnight (January 1), the contract between the Ministry of Transportation and Natsva, which operates the station, is automatically renewed.
The terminal on Haharash Street is also located in the Neve Sha'anan neighborhood, about 300 meters from the existing station, so that the pollution will continue to be concentrated in the area. The plan to build a bus terminal in the Panorama complex, which was to be the main alternative to the station, has been abandoned for now. A joint statement from the Ministry of Transportation and the municipality said that "they will continue to explore additional alternatives" and that "planning procedures will be promoted that will allow the establishment of alternative terminals in Panorama and other places."

Transport Minister Merav Michaeli and Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai have announced that they will work to establish a "modern and modern transportation terminal that integrates with the environment" at the existing station. According to a source in the municipality, it is believed there that the station should continue to serve as a major transportation artery. "The best case scenario was to rectify the existing situation, and turn the place into a proper and modern transportation center," the source added.
 Michaeli and Huldai said they would work to increase the number of electric buses at the station and at alternative terminals, in order to reduce the level of pollution. In addition, it was stated, "In the medium term, the Ministry of Transportation and the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality will increase enforcement on the cleanliness and order of the existing station and its surroundings, in order to provide security and an appropriate level of service to public transportation users."
On her Twitter account, Michaeli wrote: "I promised and I will fulfill. Together with the mayor, my friend Ron Huldai, we agreed on the best way to remove the transportation activity from Tel Aviv Central Station. The solution we found for residents and residents will not hurt Caused by the station and will lead the area to a better and cleaner condition. "
The headquarters for the struggle at the Central Station harshly criticized the conclusion: "Merav Michaeli failed," the headquarters said. "She succumbed to all of Huldai's demands and together they sewed a joint Israbloff. In the end, the worst alternative was chosen - the station stays, the buses stay, the non-normative activity stays, the insecurity for women remains."
The Green Trend organization, which is fighting for the evacuation of the station, joined the criticism.
The historic opportunity to do justice to the residents of South Tel Aviv and the users of public transportation, "said the organization's CEO, Elad Hochman. "Trying to present things as an achievement is in fact a gross lie at worst and a lack of understanding of the size of the hour at worst. We will continue the just struggle to get clean air and get good public transportation."

The Zazim movement said: "The decision of Michaeli and Huldai is a spit in the faces of the residents of the neighborhoods near the station and in the faces of thousands of citizens who joined the struggle to evacuate the station. It is very unfortunate that the two ignore their duty as public representatives "The public pressure will continue, and we will not stop following until the station is evacuated."
In August, after years of public struggle for the closure of the station, the Tel Aviv Municipality and the Ministry of Transportation announced that they had reached an agreement on its evacuation. Natsva was to bear some of the eviction costs and receive in return building rights in its place. The municipality has proposed several terminals to which the bus activity will be temporarily transferred, the largest of which is in the Panorama complex. Huldai recently withdrew from the proposal, claiming that the scope of activity planned in the complex is too large. In addition, the municipality claimed that the complex where a bus parking lot is to be built is a nature site intended for conservation, even though it is in fact a waste site.
The Ministry of Transport could have ordered the municipality to evacuate the station anyway, but ministry officials explained that they would prefer to avoid unilateral measures. Against the background of the contacts between the parties, there is a dispute over the control of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in Gush Dan, which the ministry intends to establish. The Ministry of the Environment has the authority to declare the station a sanitary hazard, a move that will lead to its closure within six months if no way is found to reduce the level of pollution it creates.