Rail transport in Israel

Rail transport in Israel is one of the modes of transport in the country. It includes heavy rail (inter-city and commuter rail), freight rail and light rail. Excluding light rail, the network consists of 1,001 kilometers (622 mi) of track, and is undergoing constant expansion. All of the lines are standard gauge and as of 2011 are not electrified. The government owned company Israel Railways manages the entire heavy rail network. Most of the network is located on the densely-populated coastal plain. The only light rail line in Israel is the Jerusalem Light Rail, though another line in Tel Aviv is currently under construction.

Most of the rail routes in Israel date back to before the establishment of the state – to the days of the British Mandate for Palestine and earlier. Rail infrastructure was considered less important than road infrastructure during the state's early years, and except for the construction of the coastal railway in the early 1950s, the rail network saw little investment until the late 1980s. In 1993, a rail connection was opened between the coastal railway from the north and southern lines (the railway to Jerusalem and railway to Beersheba) through Tel Aviv. Previously the only connection between northern railways and southern railways bypassed the Tel Aviv region – Israel's population and commercial center. The linking of the nationwide rail network through the heart of Tel Aviv was a major factor in facilitating further expansion in the overall network during in the 1990s and 2000s and as a result of the heavy infrastructure investments passenger traffic rose significantly, from about 2.5 million per year in 1990 to about 36 million in 2010.

Israel is a member of the International Union of Railways and its UIC country code is 95.^[1] The country does not have railway links to adjacent countries, but one such link is planned with Jordan. Unlike road vehicles (including trams), Israeli railway trains run on the left hand tracks.

History

Rail infrastructure in what is now Israel was first envisioned and realized during the Ottoman period. The Jaffa–Jerusalem railway, initiated by the Jewish entrepreneur Joseph Navon and built by the French, was opened in full in 1892 at 1 m gauge. The Ottomans soon built the Hejaz railway, which had an extension to Haifa called the Jezreel Valley railway. It was inaugurated in 1905. Major railway development was undertaken by the Ottomans, with German assistance, in World War I, which saw the construction of the eastern and southern railways.

When the British Empire was advancing on the Ottomans, it too built and repaired numerous railways to help in the war effort. In 1917–18, the British converted the Ottoman 1.05 m gauge southern railway and railway to Jerusalem to standard gauge. They also built 600 mm gauge lines in Jaffa and Jerusalem. After the war ended, the British nationalized all railways in the Palestine mandate and created the company Palestine Railways to manage operations.

When Israel gained independence in 1948, the state created Israel Railways as a successor to the British company. During the 1948 War of Independence, much damage was done to the railways in the country, especially the Jezreel Valley railway, which was not rebuilt due to financial constraints. In the first years of Israeli independence, rail passenger traffic grew rapidly, reaching about 4.5 million passengers per annum during the early-to-mid 1960s, at which point traffic began to slacken due to improvements in the road infrastructure, increases in the automobile ownership rate, lack of investment in the rail network, and a continued favoring of public transportation using buses over trains. This trend reached a low point of about 2.5 million passengers in 1990, which on a per-capita basis represented about a 75% decrease from the heyday of the 1960s.

Rail infrastructure

Heavy rail

As of 2010, the rail network in Israel spans approximately 1,000 km (620 mi), with around 250 km (160 mi) additional expected to be under construction early in the 2010s decade.

The network includes the coastal railway line spanning from Nahariya in the north to Tel Aviv in the south, through Acre, Haifa (with a spur to eastern Haifa), Netanya and other cities. A small commuter line goes from Kfar Sava in the north to Tel Aviv, and connects to a freight-only line from Rosh HaAyin to Lod, part of the defunct eastern railway. Plans exist to rebuild the eastern railway from Hadera to Rosh HaAyin, with a spur to Afula.

Six lines go south from Tel Aviv, including two short lines to Rishon LeZion, which will be interconnected and extend south to Ashdod through Yavne; a line to Ashkelon through Lod and Rehovot with a spur to the Port of Ashdod; a line to Modi'in through Ben Gurion International Airport; a line to Jerusalem, which is part of the historical Jaffa–Jerusalem railway; and the railway to Beersheba, with spurs to Ramat Hovav and the Israel Chemicals factories through Dimona. The railway to Beersheba is also connected to the line to Ashkelon through the Heletz railway.

In the early 2000s, the Israeli government embarked on a major project to upgrade and electrify the existing rail network and build a number of entirely new lines. This includes rebuilding the railway to Beersheba and converting it to dual-track, constructing dozens of grade separations between road and rail, rebuilding the eastern railway and Jezreel Valley railway, and creating new lines: Ashkelon–Beersheba through Sderot, Netivot and Ofakim, lines to Karmiel and Eilat and the High-speed railway to Jerusalem. Many of these projects were frozen, but some resumed in 2009–2010, when they were included in a major government plan to connect almost all cities in Israel to the rail network.

The long-term plan also calls for a railway to Arad through Nevatim, a line from Modi'in to Rishon LeZion via Highway 431, a line to Nazareth and continuing the Karmiel and Jezreel Valley lines to Kiryat Shmona, Safed and Tiberias.

Electrification

Currently Israel Railways relies solely on diesel locomotives and DMUs. In the spring of 2010, the government of Israel voted to appropriate the sum of NIS11.2 Billion (US$3 billion) to implement the first phase of Israel Railways' electrification programme. This phase includes electrifying 420 km of railways using 25 kV 50Hz AC and the construction of 14 transformer stations, plus the purchase of electric rolling stock. As of late 2011 however, some of the statutory permitting process for this complex nationwide undertaking had yet to be completed and therefore it is uncertain when construction will begin. Preliminary design for the electrification effort was conducted by TEDEM Civil Engineering in the early 2000s, while Yanai Electrical Engineering was selected by Israel Railways in 2011 to carry out the detailed design of the system. Currently the maximum speed on the national rail network is limited to 150 km/h (though this is expected to rise to 160 km/h by 2013); as part of the electrification project, portions of the network will be designed to allow operation at speeds of up to 200 km/h.

Light rail

The only light rail line in Israel is the Jerusalem Light Rail, opened in 2011. The line is 13.8 km (8.6 mi) long and goes from Mount Herzl in the west, with an extension planned to Ein Kerem, to Pisgat Ze'ev in the east, with a planned extension to Neve Ya'akov.

A major LRT/BRT network is planned for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, spanning three light rail lines for a total of 82 km (51 mi). The first (red) line will go from Petah Tikva in the northeast to west Rishon LeZion in the southwest, with a significant portion of it underground. As of 2011, the line is in the initial stages of construction. The second (green) line will go from Rishon LeZion and Holon in the south to north Tel Aviv. The third (purple) line will start in central Tel Aviv, go around the city and turn east. It will split into two in Kiryat Ono and reach Yehud and Petah Tikva.

In addition, a funicular underground rail line, the Carmelit, was opened in Haifa in 1959.

Passenger traffic

The heavy investments in the rail infrastructure beginning in the early-to-mid 1990s made train travel more appealing, especially given the ever-increasing road congestion, and consequently passenger use began rising rapidly—by a factor of about fivefold over any given ten year span, beginning in 1990, a trend which has been continuing to the present day. With several large-scale railway infrastructure projects still underway and more planned in the future, the growth in passenger numbers is expected to continue.

Statistics

Passenger stations

Freight

According to official statistics, Israel Railways transported 7021.6 kilotons of freight in 2010. Chemicals from the Dead Sea area, such as phosphates, potash and sulphur, made up more than half of this amount.^[2]

Rail links to adjacent countries

Originally part of the Palestine Railway, a line linked East Qantara north of the Suez Canal in Egypt, skirting the Mediterranean northward to the port of Tripoli, Lebanon. In 1912, the French built an extension of the Baghdad Railway south from Aleppo, Syria, to connect at Tripoli, Lebanon. Expanded during World War II by both Australian and later New Zealand engineers, the effective footprint extended as far as Damascus.

For a railway both created and effected by the logistical need of military engineers supporting a various war efforts, on the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 and the outbreak of hostilities during the Israeli War of Independence, those connections were severed and have yet to be restored.

Israeli forces bombed the rail bridge on the way to Lebanon, and the remnants of this line can be seen at Rosh HaNikra grottoes, where a virtual "train ride to peace" movie is shown inside the sealed tunnel that used to go into Lebanon. The tracks used to continue from Rosh HaNikra to Nahariya (the current northern end of the line) making it possible for one to travel from Lebanon all the way to Tel Aviv, Cairo, and beyond. Northerly, there was a route to Syria and connection via Chemins de Fer Syriens to Damascus.

Railway links with adjacent countries

• Lebanon – defunct
• Syria – defunct (narrow gauge)
• Jordan – proposed
• Egypt – defunct

Proposed rail lines to the PA

Talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in 2004 have raised the possibility of reviving the old line from the Gaza Strip to Tulkarm and/or building a new line from Gaza to Tarkumia (near Hebron) with the aim of securely transporting people and goods between Gaza and the West Bank through Israeli territory as well as for transporting cargo to and from the Israeli port of Ashdod destined to the Palestinian Authority.^[3] Another proposed line would involve the revival of the old Hejaz railway branch from Afula to Jenin.

References