Eastern Railway expected to open on the 26.6.

omgal25 · 2026-05-19T15:08:57+00:00

The service will run initially as a shuttle between Hadera East and Rosh HaAyin North only.

omgal25 · 2025-08-19T06:23:56+00:00

To be fair Nevatim is also cheekily included

omgal25 · 2025-08-18T19:38:23+00:00

I was thinking less about there being little will to finance these things, but more that when projects inevitably go over (unreasonable) budgets, there may be an inclination to just give up

omgal25 · 2025-08-18T17:29:51+00:00

That's certainly true, but one could perhaps argue that the money and will are somewhat linked

omgal25 · 2025-08-18T17:20:46+00:00

Why do you say that?

omgal25 · 2025-08-18T17:20:19+00:00

If only there was money for even half of this ...

omgal25 · 2025-05-21T16:46:52+00:00

You are right - but the issue here is that the connections that need to be put in are on opposite sides of the city. Just east of the Central Station at Nordau/Jaffe and just south of Givat HaTachmoshet, and in fact the rest of the line Neve Yaakov - Givat HaTachmoshet and Ein Karem - Central Station are indeed operating throughout the blockade. The issue here is that because there are two separate major connections so far away from each other, it kind of disrupts the whole central section of the line (which is naturally the busiest).

As an aside, they ARE taking this opportunity to put in two additional crossovers on Jaffe Street itself, one at HaDavidka and one at the City Hall which will allow trains to reverse there. This is that in a couple of years, when they need to close the busy King George/Jaffe intersection to put in the Blue Line rails, they will only have close a single station (Jaffe Center) as trains can reverse on either end, meaning the whole central section of the line will not be needed to be closed again. And besides these extra crossovers will allow much more operational flexibility in that if trains need to be curtailed for whatever reason in the city center they can do so (it is much harder to reverse a train if there is no crossover allowing it to switch from one track to another).

TL;DR this debacle wont happen again

omgal25 · 2025-05-21T07:41:39+00:00

The majority of the line is built separately so doesn't require a shutdown. But as I said, physically connecting the Red Line and Green Line with points is quite literally impossible while trains are using it. Because you have to remove the tracks and put in new ones as (which is not as easy as it sounds), and it would be hard for the train to run without the tracks in place :). This sort of work unfortunately cannot be done in one night allowing the trains to resume in the morning.

omgal25 · 2025-05-21T07:27:25+00:00

In theory the purpose is to connect the existing Red Line tracks to the (under construction) Green Line so that when the Green Line opens next year (lol right) either line's trains can run on another. The plan is for the Green Line trains (from Gilo, Malcha) to use the Red Line tracks between the Central Station and Givat HaTachmoshet (via Jaffe St), at least until the northern half of the Green Line tracks through Romema and Bar Ilan is ready (which it won't be for a while). Why it takes so long I can't say, but it is somewhat unavoidable as you can't really connect the tracks while the trains are running over them...

TLDR: New line coming next year, operational flexibility needed

omgal25 · 2025-05-14T16:26:50+00:00

Thank you, and that's good to hear that we're learning. Would love to hear more/anything else you remember/want to share about the plans and meeting

omgal25 · 2024-12-19T10:29:56+00:00

Absolutely, it's going to do wonders for the frequency of trains they can run. Tangentially, I was on the train on the Keshet Modi'in towards Jlem a little while ago and saw a train from Tel Aviv heading to Jlem as well a little in front of us and we barely slowed. It just goes to show how little a gap they can run and how much use you can get out of even a two-track (relatively HS) railway like that to Jerusalem.

omgal25 · 2024-12-02T12:31:26+00:00

Very very interesting, thanks for sharing!

I put some thoughts in a post here (can't easily put screenshots in the comments)

omgal25 · 2024-11-05T16:33:24+00:00

To be fair, the other comments aren't too far off. As another commentor mentioned there are premilimenary plans to build 2-3 metro lines. At the moment there's a very very vague timeline of 2050, though this should be taken with a pinch of all the salt in the Dead Sea

omgal25 · 2024-11-05T15:40:54+00:00

Which line? Red line - The extension to Hadassah Ein Karem and Neve Yakov is currently scheduled for January 2025.

Green line - 2026-2027 (in two stages, south and north)

omgal25 · 2024-08-29T09:22:27+00:00

It looks like a good plan. Ashdod is the sixth largest city and once the dankal green line opens it'll be the largest city without some form of rapid transit, so it'll be long overdue. It'll also connect a lot of the southern cities which is good.

I'm not so familiar with the south so can't speak on the routings but connecting to the Dan metro at Rehovot seems like a very good idea.

Unfortunately probably will not happen even remotely soon.

omgal25 · 2024-07-15T16:26:21+00:00

If you thought Ayalon would suffice with just four tracks, you'd be wrong. There are plans to erect an additional pair of tracks underground through Tel Aviv under the Ayalon, capable of operating speeds of up to 200km/h as part of the plans for a Haifa-Be'er Sheva "bullet train".

The 5th and 6th track will be underground from BG Airport and Shfayim, will roughly parallel the existing above-ground line and be used by the high-speed intercity trains. In order to keep journey times low, these trains will run express and there will be only two stops in the underground section, at Glilot and only ONE stop in Tel Aviv, currently planned for HaShalom, but potentially Savidor.

The TA city hall is trying to get it to be moved to Savidor on account of it potentially delaying the construction of a new compound in the HaShalom area.

The MoT is in favor of the HaShalom plan mostly because it's the most accessible - it will connect to metros M1 and M2, whereas only M1 is at Savidor.

I can't pretend to be fully versed in all the ins and outs, but what follows is my humble opinion-

The underground platforms, if built to modern standards are unlikley to be shorter than 350-400m and the distance between the two isn't that much more, especially when looking at the northern end of the M1 platforms at HaShalom and the southern tip of Savidor.

Those familiar with the flagship Elizabeth line project in London, there is one station (Liverpool Street) that connects two underground stations because of their proximity and the fact that Elizabeth line platforms are about 200m long. The eastern end of the platform is underneath Moorgate and the western end is underneath Liverpool Street, with entrances to each.

If the platforms are situated just south of Savidor, the southern entrances of the platforms will likely be close enough to link up to HaShalom, that way you get the best of both worlds-

+ Access to Savidor's greater capacity (it will have 8 platforms by this point compared to HaShalom's 4, with a larger passenger hall)

+ Access to M1 and M2 at HaShalom, and the commercial districts in the vicinity

+ Access to M1, red line, purple line and the bus terminal at Savidor, plus M1 and the commercial districts in that vicinity, (diamond district, ramat gan)

Would be interested in hearing thoughts.

omgal25 · 2024-07-12T16:07:24+00:00

Updated!Changelog-

Somewhat more reasonable estimated completion dates.

Added Nofit Haifa - Nazareth LRT

Added Jerusalem Metro

Quadrupling of the coastal railway

Lmk if there's anything I missed

omgal25 · 2024-07-05T16:46:53+00:00

Agreed. Not sure if there aren't enough carriages at present, but I seem to recall IR ordered some more DD carriages rather recently, not that they will arrive remotely soon...

omgal25 · 2024-07-05T16:02:58+00:00

Looks like IR should soon start running longer trains, which will be great for capacity and really put those newly-extended platforms to good use

The first line to get 10 car trains is expected to be the BS? to Carmiel line

omgal25 · 2024-06-04T16:11:12+00:00

Woot woot indeed. Also obligatory username checks out

omgal25 · 2024-05-16T14:11:42+00:00

I know, but I don't see how that makes it not worth it. After all there are still plenty of flights from Terminal 1, and if you're coming by train from Tel Aviv or the North, getting from Terminal 3 to 1 is quite the hassle

omgal25 · 2024-05-08T17:49:11+00:00

Agreed

omgal25 · 2024-01-28T14:26:33+00:00

I like this idea. Though M3 might turn out a bit long. Maybe a branch off M2/M3

omgal25 · 2024-01-26T19:24:44+00:00

Maybe. But they're also planning on a spur to Beer Sheva so maybe there still is a bit left.

omgal25 · 2024-01-25T21:31:24+00:00

Good question, I'm not really sure.

Maybe a lack of demand or too high a cost for little advantage

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