Israel Railways
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Israel Railways (Hebrew: רכבת ישראל "Rakevet Yisrael") is Israel's government-owned national railway company and is responsible for all inter-city and suburban railway passenger and freight traffic in the country. It utilizes the standard gauge in all its lines. The network is centered in Israel's densely populated coastal plain from where lines radiate out from Tel Aviv in many directions.
One line goes North along the coast reaching Haifa, the Krayot, and Nahariya. One goes South to Be'er Sheva. Freight trains continue past Dimona, with plans to open up a passenger station in Dimona and extend the line to the Red Sea port of Eilat. Another line goes South to Ashdod with a spur to Rishon LeTzion. A renovated extension to the line which connects Ashdod with Ashkelon opened on April 9, 2005. Another goes East to Kfar Saba. The line to Jerusalem which opened in 1892, saw its operations suspended in 1998 due to poor track state. However, it has recently been rebuilt and upgraded and the section of this line to Bet Shemesh re-opened in September, 2003 while the remainder of the upgraded line to Jerusalem opened on April 9, 2005 together with the opening of the new Malcha Station in southern Jerusalem. In October, 2004, a new line from Tel Aviv to the new Terminal 3 at Ben Gurion International Airport was opened. From there this line will continue as a brand new high speed line currently being built to Jerusalem with a spur to Modi'in. This difficult to construct line will be electrified and make extensive use of long railway tunnels in order to make it possible for trains to achieve high speeds as they make their way from the coastal region to the mountainous Jerusalem area. Initially this new line will terminate at a new underground station under construction underneath the Jerusalem Central Bus Station in Central Jerusalem. There are future plans to extend the line from the Jerusalem Central Bus Station so that it will connect with the historic (now upgraded) railroad that already reaches Southern Jerusalem. The ride on the new high speed line from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem will take 28 minutes. The line is expected to be finished in 2009.
Israel Railways traces its roots to the railway lines built by the British and Turkish authorities. For many years the system lay under-utilized and in disrepair. However, in recent years Israel Railways has undertaken an ambitious multi-billion dollar expansion program. This program calls for large sums to be invested in reviving abandoned railroads, refurbishing and upgrading existing lines, and the construction of major brand new lines, as well as electrification of much of the system and the purchase of new rolling stock. Besides the aforementioned high-speed Tel Aviv to Modi'in/Jerusalem line, other new lines are currently under construction. One is the revival of the long-defunct Jezreel Valley line from Haifa to Bet She'an (originally a branch of the famed Hejaz railway) with a planned connection across the Jordan River into Jordan. There is also construction of a new line from Tel Aviv to Ashdod via the southern Tel Aviv suburbs of Holon, Bat Yam, and Rishon LeTzion. In addition, a new line will be built to connect Ashkelon with Be'er Sheva via the Southern development towns on the edge of the Negev Desert. A plan also exists to build a new line line from Akko (Acre) to Karmiel. Also, the existing line to Be'er Sheva is currently undergoing upgrades to high-speed, dual-track configuration.
Recent talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority have also raised the possibility of reviving the old line from the Gaza Strip to Tulkarm among some circles with the aim of securely transporting people and goods between Gaza and the West Bank through sovereign Israeli territory as well as for transporting cargo to and from the Israeli port of Ashdod destined to the Palestinian Authority. Before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the railway system was extensively connected to neighboring countries, however, with 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 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. Although unlikely at the present time, if and when true peace in the Middle East takes hold, some people hope that Israel could become an important railway junction in this region of the world, as it was before Israel became a state, thanks to being strategically situated on the Mediterranean Sea, at the crossroads of Africa and Asia.
In 2004 the railway carried about 8 million tons of frieght and 23 million passengers, a six-fold increase over the annual number of passengers it carried ten years ealier. Israel Railways forcasts that it will carry more than 60 million passengers in 2010 as a result of its expansion program.
External links
- Israel Railways (Official Web site) (http://www.israrail.org.il/english/index.html)
- Israel Railway News (Unofficial Web site) (http://www.railnewsil.com/english/index.html)de:Israel Railways