Transport Minister Shimon Peres has outlined a five-point program in the Knesset designed to modernize Israel’s transportation facilities at home and overseas. Peres said “it was a mistake and it would be a mistake in the future to let this country’s transportation depend on cars and vehicles alone.”
Peres was referring to the emphasis on highway transport in Israel and the relative neglect of the country’s railroads. One point of his plan calls for an electrified railroad network in the greater Tel Aviv area which holds the country’s greatest concentration of population. Peres’ plan would cost nearly $381 million in its entirety by the end of 1977. But he said that before this money is committed the authorities must change their outlook and methods of financial calculation.
He said that to facilitate tourism, his Ministry plans to expand Lydda Airport and to build additional air fields capable of handling jumbo jets.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.