美国有线新闻 CNN 以色列首条快速铁路开通 经过存争议领土

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AZUZ: Israel has a new high speed rail line that's an engineering marvel¹. Miles of bridges had to be built. Miles of tunnels had to be built.

And it's traversing controversy² as well. The rail line has two mostly underground sections that pass through disputed territory and officials have plans to extend it inside Jerusalem's Old City, which is holy to Christians³, Jews and Muslims.

This area's first electric railway is scheduled to open to the public in the weeks or months ahead. If that sounded vague, it's because the tremendous project has seen delays for years, though it should reduce delays for thousands of commuters.

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This train is the largest transportation project in Israel, costing a whopping $2 billion. When you get on board, you're stepping into the future, alongside the past. It will be the quickest for pilgrims to get to the holy city of Jerusalem or a businessman going to tech hub of Tel Aviv for a meeting. It's also going to reduce the commute⁴ between the Mediterranean⁵ plains and the Judean hills, which usually takes about an hour to two to less than 30 minutes.

This project, though, has been delayed. It's 10 years behind schedule. Officials blame bureaucratic⁶ problems that they've encountered, but they hope to have 50,000 people riding this train a day at its peak.

This project truly is immense. There's 14 kilometers of tunnels and bridges, like one we're traveling through r?ight now. But it isn't without controversy. This tunnel runs through the West Bank.

Something also that is interesting is that the train station in Jerusalem is one of the top five deepest in the world, and was built to withstand a nuclear blast. And you won't be able to ride alongside me anytime soon, as it's expected to be opened to the public in the next few months.