Israel MOF Rail Financial Management Oversight
Tel Aviv, Israel

Background

Israel has experienced a nearly five-fold increase in passenger rail ridership over the past nine years; the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Transport recognized that only with substantial investment and a comprehensive development program can the country’s needs be accommodated to account for future population growth, economic development and an increased need for access to labor and other important centers.  With traffic congestion endemic on most inter-urban routes, the program takes on an even greater priority.

PB Consult Services

In Sepember 2004, Israel’s Ministry of Finance (MOF) awarded PB Consult a rail financial management oversight contract to advise on the Israel Railways Ltd.'s plan to develop 33 rail projects for the next five years and beyond.  PB Consult’s role is to provide a technical and financial assessment of the progress of the Israel Railways Ltd.’s (IRL’s) 33 projects as part of a $4 billion capital improvement plan.  Projects will be evaluated for their appropriateness of construction and programming profiles, their progression of costs incurred to date and their ability to be finished on time and within budget.

There is much at stake in the efficient and timely delivery of these 33 projects. The projects must be constructed to world-class standards, techniques and practices as they will form the backbone of a transportation system that will need to sustain substantial travel demands over many years.

Dealing with the myriad complexities of the projects themselves, many of which are already under construction or under rehabilitation/upgrade, is challenging.  A case in point is a new high-speed railway link to Jerusalem, which is about 700 meters (2,300 feet) higher than the coastal area from which it originates.  The rail line will have to negotiate through a gentle climb in elevation and then terminate at a station well under the existing street level, accessible by elevator.  This is unprecedented in Israel. 

Other technical complexities are the presence of sensitive archeological sites within the right-of-way of many of the new lines planned, as well as numerous security installations alongside existing lines that are being expanded.

PB Consult is also tasked with assessing the organizational structure of the IRL, its ability to execute such a large five year capital development plan, and will be recommending improvements to the way financial planning, execution and monitoring will be conducted.  Additional tasks include the oversight of disbursement requests issued by the IRL to the Ministry of Finance for progress during the construction phase, financial analysis of the capital program itself and other specific technical reviews of electrification, rolling stock procurement and signaling/communications as well as service interruption coordination.