Eastern Railway (Israel)
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The Eastern Railway () refers to a railroad in central
Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
stretching from
Lod Lod (, ), also known as Lydda () and Lidd (, or ), is a city southeast of Tel Aviv and northwest of Jerusalem in the Central District of Israel. It is situated between the lower Shephelah on the east and the coastal plain on the west. The ci ...
to
Hadera Hadera (, ) is a city located in the Haifa District of Israel, in the northern Sharon plain, Sharon region, approximately 45 kilometers (28 miles) from the major cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa. The city is located along 7 km (5 mi) of ...
. The section between
Kfar Saba Kfar Saba ( ), officially Kfar Sava , is a List of Israeli cities, city in the Sharon plain, Sharon region, of the Central District (Israel), Central District of State of Israel, Israel. In 2019 it had a population of 110,456, making it the 16th-l ...
and Lod, as well as a short section just north of Hadera are currently in use but the rest of the railway has not been operative since 1969. However, in 2019 a large-scale project began to rebuild and upgrade the railway along the entire route.


History


Ottoman Empire

The railway was constructed by the Ottoman authorities in
Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...
during the
Sinai and Palestine Campaign The Sinai and Palestine campaign was part of the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I, taking place between January 1915 and October 1918. The British Empire, the French Third Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy fought alongside the Arab Revol ...
of
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, to assist them with moving men and
materiel Materiel or matériel (; ) is supplies, equipment, and weapons in military supply-chain management, and typically supplies and equipment in a commerce, commercial supply chain management, supply chain context. Military In a military context, ...
in the war effort. It entered service on 30 October 1915, connecting
Tulkarm Tulkarm or Tulkarem (, ''Ṭūlkarm'') is a Palestinians, Palestinian city in the West Bank, the capital of the Tulkarm Governorate of the State of Palestine. The Israeli city of Netanya is to the west, and the Palestinian territories, Palestinia ...
(where it connected to a branch line of the
Jezreel Valley Railway The Jezreel Valley railway, or the Valley Train (, ''Rakevet HaEmek'' ; ) was a railroad that existed in Ottoman Empire, Ottoman and Mandatory Palestine, British Palestine, New Jezreel Valley railway, reconstituted as a modern railway in Israel ...
, and through it the greater Hejaz Railway) and Lod, where it connected to the
Jaffa–Jerusalem railway The Jaffa–Jerusalem railway (also J & J) is a railway that connected Jaffa and Jerusalem. The line was built in the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem (Ottoman Syria) by the French company ''Société du Chemin de Fer Ottoman de Jaffa à Jérusale ...
and the
Railway to Beersheba The Railway to Beersheba (, ''Mesilat HaRakevet LiV'er Sheva'') is a railway line that runs from central Israel to the Zin Factories ( Mount Zin) in southern Israel, with a spur to the Be'er Sheva Center Railway Station and branch lines to Ramat Ho ...
. An extension northwards from Tulkarm to Hadera was also built in order to supply the railway with timber collected from the forests around Hadera that was used as fuel and for infrastructure. The line was built as
narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...
() like the rest of the Ottoman railways in the region and was situated relatively inland to avoid the reach of naval guns from
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
warships patrolling the
Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...
coast.


British Mandate

After the
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
conquered the area, they converted the railway to
standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...
and extended it from Hadera north to the port city of
Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...
. It then became the main north-south rail link in
Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...
and was operated by
Palestine Railways Palestine Railways (Arabic: سكة حديد فلسطين; Palestine Railways; Contemporary Hebrew: “Palestine Railways” or ; Present-day Hebrew: “Mandate Railways”) was a government-owned railway company that ran all public railways i ...
. While the Jaffa-Jerusalem railway was also converted to standard gauge at the same time, the Jezreel Valley Railway was not and therefore it was no longer possible for trains using the Eastern Railway to travel to sections of the Hejaz Railway due to the
gauge break With railways, a break of gauge occurs where a line of one track gauge (the distance between the rails, or between the wheels of trains designed to run on those rails) meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock generally canno ...
. During the Mandate period, stations on the Eastern Railway operated in Hadera, Qaqun, Tulkarm,
Qalqilyah Qalqilya or Qalqiliya () is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, which serves as the administrative center of the Qalqilya Governorate. The city had a population of 51,683 in 2017. Qalqilya is surrounded by the Israeli West Bank wall, with a narr ...
,
Rosh HaAyin Rosh HaAyin (; ) is a city in the Central District of Israel. It is located in the eastern ravine of the Sharon River, opposite the Samaria Mountains. The city is named after its location at the source of the Yarkon River (“Ras” meaning sou ...
,
Rantiya Rantiya (, known to the Romans as Rantia and to the Crusaders as Rentie) was a Palestinian village, located east of Jaffa. During the British Mandate in Palestine, in 1945 it had a population of 590 inhabitants. Those inhabitants became refugee ...
, Kafr Jinis, and
Lydda Lod (, ), also known as Lydda () and Lidd (, or ), is a city southeast of Tel Aviv and northwest of Jerusalem in the Central District of Israel. It is situated between the lower Shephelah on the east and the coastal plain on the west. The ci ...
(Lod). In the later stages of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
and for a short time thereafter, the Eastern Railway was one link in a larger contiguous standard gauge rail network that allowed trains to travel all the way from
Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...
to southern
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
.


Israel


20th century

When the State of Israel was established in 1948, most of the line lay within its borders, except for a small section of railway near Tulkarm. In 1949 a bypass was constructed west of Tulkarm which allowed renewal of service on the railway. In 1953,
Israel Railways Israel Railways Ltd. (, ''Rakevet Yisra'el'') is the state-owned principal railway company responsible for all inter-city, commuter, and freight rail transport in Israel. Israel Railways network consists of of track. All its lines are standar ...
completed constructing the
Coastal Railway The Coastal railway line () is a Main line (railway), mainline railway in Israel, which begins just south of the Lebanon-Israel border on the Mediterranean coast, near the town of Nahariya in Northern Israel and stretches almost the entire Mediter ...
from Hadera to
Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...
on a route roughly paralleling the Eastern Railway's, but much closer to the coastline, where most of the population resides. Nevertheless, some passenger and freight service on the Eastern railway continued operating, partly to show Israeli presence in the region around the railway which lay very close to the 1949 Armistice Line – then the country's eastern border with Jordan. The railway also derived its name from this easterly location within the country. After Israel came to control both sides of the Armistice Line following the 1967
Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...
, service on the section of the line from just south of the
Hadera East railway station Hadera (, ) is a city located in the Haifa District of Israel, in the northern Sharon region, approximately 45 kilometers (28 miles) from the major cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa. The city is located along 7 km (5 mi) of the Israeli c ...
to Kfar Saba was discontinued in 1969. This railway section was effectively abandoned, and had since then been dismantled. The rest of the line between Kfar Saba and Lod continued operating, albeit mainly for freight services, with a few passenger trains making use of the section between Rosh HaAyin and Lod on the way from northern Tel Aviv and points north of it to the old Jerusalem station and to southern Israel. This was because until the 1990s the Ayalon Railway did not exist and thus there was no north-south rail connection through Tel Aviv itself. As such, this section of the Eastern Railway was the only link between the northern and southern portions of Israel's rail network. In the early 2000s, the Kfar Saba–Rosh HaAyin section was rebuilt and double tracked. It now forms part of the suburban railway line serving cities in the southern Sharon plain. Another part of the Eastern Railway that continued operating is a short section which connects the Hadera East railway station to the Coastal Railway at a point near
Pardes Hanna Pardes Hanna-Karkur () is a town in the Haifa District of Israel. In it had a population of . It has been characterized as having a hipster culture. History An Arab village named Karkur had stood at this location by the time the Palestine Exp ...
named Remez Junction. Hadera East, a terminal station since 1969, is only used for handling freight trains bound for the adjacent Granot "Ambar North" large
feed Feed or The Feed may refer to: Animal foodstuffs * Animal feed, food given to domestic animals in the course of animal husbandry ** Fodder, foodstuffs manufactured for animal consumption ** Forage, foodstuffs that animals gather themselves, su ...
mill complex.


21st century

Partly to alleviate congestion on the Coastal Railway as well as to increase freight capacity on the national rail network and provide rail access to a planned
inland port An inland port is a port on an inland waterway, such as a river, lake, or canal, which may or may not be connected to the sea. The term "inland port" is also used to refer to a dry port. Examples The United States Army Corps of Engineers publ ...
, the government of Israel announced in 2016 plans to revive the old Eastern line at a projected cost of at least NIS 10 billion (appx. US$2.7 billion in 2018 dollars). The project involves rebuilding the railroad in the Hadera – Kfar Saba section and upgrading the existing section between Rosh HaAyin and Lod, including the construction of 30
grade separation In civil engineering (more specifically highway engineering), grade separation is a method of aligning a junction of two or more surface transport axes at different heights ( grades) so that they will not disrupt the traffic flow on other tr ...
s, ten other supporting structures, and connections and
flying junction A flying junction or flyover is a railway junction at which one or more diverging or converging tracks in a multiple-track route cross other tracks on the route by bridge to avoid conflict with other train movements. A more technical term is "gr ...
s with other railroads. The entire route will be electrified and double-tracked, and stations will be constructed in Kokhav Ya'ir,
El'ad El'ad () is a city in the Central District of Israel. In the 1990s, it was built for a Haredi population and to a lesser extent, it was also built for a Religious Zionist Jewish population. Located about east of Tel Aviv on Route 444 between R ...
, and
Airport City Airport City (also known as an Aerotropolis) is a model for urban development that focuses on improving the livability of the areas within and immediately surrounding the airport in support of a variety of economic activities. An Airport City is ...
business park (near the old Kafr Jinis station). A significant portion of the railway will be built alongside the existing Cross-Israel Highway. In 2018, the National Roads Company (Netivei Yisrael) began acquiring land necessary for the project. The awarding of construction contracts began in 2019 with actual works expected to commence in 2020 and take 6 to 7 years to complete. The National Roads Company is supervising the rebuilding of the defunct line from Hadera to Kfar Sava, while Israel Railways is managing the upgrading and double-tracking of the section between Rosh HaAyin and Lod. The section between Hadera and Rosh HaAyin is scheduled to be opened in 2025, while the start of commercial operations of the Eastern Railway in its entirety is planned for 2027.


References

{{Israel Railways 1050 mm gauge railways in Israel Standard-gauge railways in Israel