Next stop, leisure and entertainment

The newly opened First Station complex is expected to attract visitors from out of town and abroad

By SYBIL EHRLICH
Train Station521 (photo credit: SYBIL EHRLICH)
Train Station521
(photo credit: SYBIL EHRLICH)
Theodor Herzl took the train from Jaffa to Jerusalem in 1898. He wasn’t impressed: The journey was “frightful… Sitting in the cramped, crowded scorching compartment was torture.”
Kaiser Wilhelm II and his wife also traveled by train to Jerusalem at around the same time (Herzl and the Kaiser met in Jerusalem on November 2 of that year).
This month, after renovation and development, the original station that housed this “unimpressive” Jerusalem railway reopened. Refashioned into a leisure and entertainment complex, the new “First Station” enhances the capital.
The station was built in 1892 as the Jerusalem terminus of the Jaffa-Jerusalem Railway. The railway, built by a French company, was conceived principally as a means of bringing Christian pilgrims from the port of Jaffa to the holy places in Jerusalem. The railway transformed the city, connecting it to the outside world and bringing modern innovations to what was at the time a backwater of the Ottoman Empire. Travel time from Jaffa to Jerusalem was reduced from two days to a few hours.
By the standards of the time and place, it was an incredible innovation; but as the railway was built to be cheap rather than efficient, using second-hand materials and going around the mountains rather than through them, the route it took was cumbersome and slow.
The triangular “wings” on each side of the roof were added in the early 1920s, during the British Mandate.
The station building was renovated many times, but the basic shape has not changed in more than 130 years.
In 1946 the building was blown up by the Irgun Zva’i Leumi, who saw it as a legitimate target, being part of the hated British Mandate’s Palestine Railways.
The scars are still visible on the front of the building.
The first train to reach Jerusalem after the War of Independence ran on August 7, 1949, carrying a symbolic cargo of Torah scrolls, cement and sacks of flour. Regular service resumed in 1950; and during the 1950s and ‘60s, the station saw as many as six trains a day in each direction. However, by the 1980s, with increased car ownership and the fact that the slow (but scenic) route meant journey times between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv couldn’t compete with buses, services were reduced and maintenance of the station and line virtually ceased. Frequent derailments (fortunately there were no casualties) led to the closure of the line on July 15, 1998.
After closure, the building briefly housed a restaurant called Haratzif (The Platform) but thereafter was abandoned and neglected for many years. The derelict, vandalized and graffiti-covered structure became a haven for drug addicts and prostitutes, with the surrounding area overgrown with thistles and other weeds. A fire in the building didn’t do much to improve matters, but the building somehow survived.
The line to Jerusalem was rebuilt in 2005, but only as far as Malha, leaving the five-kilometer section between Malha and Jerusalem only as a memory. It has recently been refurbished as Hamesila Park, with the original track mostly intact and new concrete panels, designed to look like wood, providing a boardwalk.
The station building has been given a new lease on life as an entertainment and leisure venue, similar to that in its sister station in Jaffa, which opened as Hatahana in 2009. The building has been beautifully restored to a high standard, at a cost of NIS 35 million. Where there were once multiple railway tracks, there is now an open area filled with shops and restaurants.
Moshe Shapiro, the owner of Shapiro Architects, explains that his company removed the long sheet-metal roof that ran the entire length of the platform (added during the British Mandate) and replaced it with a wooden roof. He says it was impossible to reconstruct the roof exactly as it was, using the same materials, but the exterior is the same as it was before Mandate times, giving it an authentic appearance. The work to some extent is based on that done at Hatahana by a different company.
Chen Melling, the director of the Israel Railway Museum in Haifa, says the museum supplied an old passenger coach and two flatbed wagons that are incorporated in the display area. The building restoration was based on information supplied from the museum’s collection of 120 years of railway history, he adds.
During renovations, the old turntable, used to turn steam locomotives, was uncovered. This may eventually be renovated as a static exhibit, Melling says.
The former ticket office and waiting room in the main station building is home to a very interesting exhibition on the history of railways in Israel, from the first proposal to build a line (as long ago as 1839) to Israel Railways’ future plans for development.
Melling deserves special thanks for providing historic photographs from the museum. Panels detailing the various stages in the history of the railways in this country (in Hebrew only) and film presentations provide a fascinating backdrop.
The site belongs to Israel Railways and is being rented to the entrepreneurs for a period of 10 years, after which it will revert to Israel Railways.
The developers have undertaken to preserve and maintain the historically significant site as a worldclass tourist attraction.
The site opened to the public last week with a Shavuot fair. There were stalls selling food of all kinds, clothing and jewelry. In addition, activities for children, street performers and several dance troupes provided entertainment for huge crowds of visitors.
Binyamin Havivian was doing a roaring trade selling attractively presented organic vegetables from his family’s farm at Moshav Hodiya, near Ashkelon. I was surprised and delighted to see – and buy – kale, a type of cabbage that I remember from my long-ago childhood in England that has apparently come back into fashion! Other stalls were selling homemade cheeses and so on. The farmers’ market is open every Thursday and Friday.
D Station, for fashion designers, is open every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday; children’s activities take place on Tuesdays and Fridays, and artists present their wares on Mondays and Saturdays.
In addition, the Smart Tours Visitors’ Center offers walking tours, as well as tours by bicycle and Segway. There will also be yoga and Pilates classes, exercise machines and a sporting goods store.
Assaf Polivoda of Smart Tours says the First Station is well positioned, close to so many other cultural and entertainment centers – the Khan Theater, Zappa Club and the Lab. He doesn’t think there is likely to be any trouble resulting from the fact that the complex will be open on Shabbat.
Pubs and restaurants, a period coffee house and many other businesses fill the plaza that was once home to numerous railway tracks. Some establishments are open on Shabbat, but opening hours are a matter of personal choice on the part of each store or business in the station, and there is no problem finding a kosher meal during the week. Many restaurants and cafes are not yet open, but it is expected that within a short time the First Station will be a major leisure venue.
The visitors’ center also houses a souvenir shop selling railway-related items and other tastefully designed articles.
The station, located close to the the Cinematheque and the Jerusalem Theater, as well as Liberty Bell Park, Hamesila Park – with the first bicycle path in the city – and the Old City, is expected to attract tourists from all over the country, as well as abroad. •