# Railways in Israel



## jis (Jun 6, 2010)

I just got back from a week in Israel, where even though I did not ride any trains, I got a fascinating look at what is going on there in the area of trains. The Tel Aviv - Jerusalem HSR construction is coming along well scheduled to open in 2015, cutting down travel time from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem down to 30 mins. Also a second east west line from Haifa to Bet Sh'aim is in the works. This line might be further extended across Hussein Bridge into Jordan to Amman if the EU funded project is taken up by Jordan. The Israeli portion of this line is a purely Israeli project with no EU involvement. There is also a proposal floating around to connect from Beer Sheba to the Egyptian railway in Sinai, but it is just mostly talk at present.

Meanwhile, it is now a breeze to hop on a train at Ben Gurion Airport on the Tel Aviv - Ben Gurion - Mod'in line and get to any of the several stations in Tel Aviv and thus avoid some taxi fare and at certain times of day endless wait in standstill traffic jam on Highway 1 the Ayalon Highway. Rolling stock is what looks like French or Belgian double decker push pulls powered by diesel electrics usually on the southern end.

On a historical note, what many don't realize is that during the second world war there was continuous rail connection from Turkey all the way to Cairo. The final link through Lebanon was completed after the fall of Vichy government in France in 1942. This line ran from Tripoli through Beirut to Haifa. Haifa by then was already connected through Lydda and Ashdod through Gaza crossing into the Sinai at what is now the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, and then across the Suez Canal on a swing bridge connecting into the Egyptian network. Today's coastal line in Israel between Nahariya in the north and Ashkalon in the south in many places follows this right of way, except in the vicinity of Tel Aviv. More changes are coming in the north where the alignment is being changed as part of the double tracking project between Haifa and Nahariya.

The Haifa-Beirut-Tripoli railway which was built by Australian and New Zealand Railway companies in the army ran through a spectacular set of tunnels across the border between then Palestine and Lebanon at Rosh HaNikra through chalk cliffs by the sea. These tunnels are still preserved and can be visited on the Israeli side. I managed to do so couple of days back. There are three tunnels the south-most is wholly in Israel and is fully accessible today. The next one crosses the border and the Israeli half of it is accessible. There is a theater and a restaurant in it. It is sealed off exactly at the border. The third is entirely in Lebanon and AFAIK is not accessible to the public. The two tunnels in Israel were connected by a bridge spanning the Grottoes that are now a tourist site. This bridge was blown up by the Hagana in August 1948 to prevent Arabs infiltrating into Israel from the north. Today a replacement bridge has been built, but not for rail tracks (at least not yet). The original track is still in place in tunnel 2!

Just as in many other places in Israel, walking through this piece of history was an interesting experience.


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