Tel Aviv–Jerusalem Railway

The modern railway connects Jerusalem with Ben-Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv, and the central coastal metropolitan area, following a route north of Highway 1 and crossing the mountainous terrain between Jerusalem and the coastal plain through tunnels and over bridges.[2][4] It is distinct from the older railway, which wound through the Judean hills and, in its later passenger-service configuration, required a change of trains at Beit Shemesh.[1] The modern connection was intended to provide a journey of about 28 minutes between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, compared with approximately an hour and a half on the older route.[1][4]

The original railway began at Jaffa and passed through what is now Tel Aviv, alongside the Ayalon corridor, before reaching Lod and Ramla.[5] From there it turned east through the Sorek Valley and climbed into the Jerusalem hills, reaching a terminus southwest of the historic city.[5][6] This single-track railway connected the Mediterranean port with Jerusalem and subsequently formed part of a wider network connecting Jerusalem with Tel Aviv–Yafo, Haifa, and Beersheba.[7] Before 1948, rail journeys from Jerusalem to Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt were also possible.[5][7]

Jerusalem’s railway termini have occupied several different locations: the original station near the German Templar colony, the later southern terminus at Malha, and the modern underground Yitzhak Navon station near Binyanei HaUma on the city’s western outskirts.[2][6] The older station buildings in Jerusalem and Jaffa have acquired cultural and leisure uses, while proposals filed in 2023 envisaged extending the modern line farther into Jerusalem through additional underground stations.[8][9]

Moses Montefiore promoted an initiative for a railway between Jaffa’s port and Jerusalem in 1839, but Ottoman rulers set it aside amid concerns about the interests of foreign powers.[10] Railway proposals continued during the nineteenth century, and the line received official sanction in 1888.[11] Jerusalem entrepreneur Yosef Navon, also identified as Joseph Bey Navon, obtained a concession lasting 71 years.[5][10] Unable to attract sufficient investment himself, he sold the concession to a French company that undertook construction.[10]

The Ottoman Railway Company from Jaffa to Jerusalem was established as a subsidiary in 1889, and railway construction began in March 1890.[5] Financing came partly from French investors, many of them clergy, while rails were imported from Belgium and coal from Britain.[5][12] Construction of the difficult route occupied the years 1890–92, and the line was completed in 1892.[12][13] Navon’s personal financial fortunes did not match the achievement of completing the railway: he went bankrupt in 1894, two years after its inauguration.[10]

The Jaffa–Jerusalem railway was inaugurated in September 1892.[2] A passenger train had reached Jerusalem from Jaffa in August, ahead of the September opening ceremony.[12] The railway introduced a new form of transport to large numbers of local residents: writing in 1893, American consul Selah Merrill recalled that tens of thousands of people had seen a railway and train for the first time during August 1892.[12] Eliezer Ben-Yehuda captured the sound of the arriving train’s whistle with the words, “A blast! A blast! A blast!”[10]

At approximately 87 kilometers, the historic railway followed a substantially winding course from the coast into the hills.[5] Its construction included 176 bridges and small bridges, seven made of metal, and its initial single-track operation allowed one train daily in each direction.[5] Sharp curves at Ludd and beyond Deir Aban, bridges across Wadi Surar and elsewhere, and a maximum gradient of 1 in 62 reflected the engineering demands of the terrain.[11] The route’s progression through the Sorek Valley provided the approach by which the railway climbed toward Jerusalem.[5]

Rail transport substantially shortened the journey between the coast and Jerusalem, replacing travel that could involve a long carriage journey and an overnight stop.[5] Early rail journeys nevertheless remained lengthy: the first train’s journey from Jaffa to Jerusalem on September 26, 1892, took six hours.[5] The new connection carried both passengers and freight and served pilgrims and tourists visiting Jerusalem.[8][14] Following its opening, visitors began arriving in the city in greater numbers.[6]

During World War I, the railway was taken from its French operator, and rails between Jaffa and Lod were removed for military railway construction toward Beersheba and Sinai.[5] Service ceased in late 1917 during the British conquest.[2] Wartime alterations also included conversion of the section between Ludd and Jerusalem from the Turkish narrow gauge to standard gauge, while part of the Jaffa–Ramla section was dismantled.[11] Train service to Jerusalem resumed in 1920 under the British Mandate railway.[5]

The line again stopped operating during the War of Independence.[2] In 1950, Israel Railways inaugurated regular passenger services between Haifa and Jerusalem, with additional track providing connections to stations in Tel Aviv, Lod, and Ramla.[5] The historic Jerusalem station remained an important railway destination through these changes, having already become a busy public place and a reception point for prominent visitors, including world leaders, during the British Mandate.[15]

The deteriorating condition of the older route led to its suspension in 1998.[2][5] Passenger service resumed in 2005 after seven years of repairs, with Jerusalem’s terminus relocated from the city center to Malha in the south.[5][16] The restored Jerusalem service did not include freight trains.[17] By 2012, the old route offered a scenic journey of about 90 minutes, ending near Malha shopping mall rather than in central Jerusalem.[1][16] The government opted to construct a new high-speed line instead of undertaking a costly further upgrade of this route.[16]

The modern high-speed project received government approval in 2001, with completion originally envisaged for 2008.[18][19] It became known as Line A1.[20] Planning began in 2001; accounts place the start of construction work in either 2005 or 2006.[20][19] The project subsequently experienced extended interruptions and was described in 2011 as Israel Railways’ largest and most complex undertaking at that time.[21]

Construction delays involved budget disputes, environmental legal challenges, problematic tenders, and the late start of electrification.[19] Work was halted amid environmental opposition until 2009, and tunneling resumed in 2012.[22] The National Planning Council gave the route final approval in 2009 after a campaign by environmental organizations seeking to replace the proposed bridge over Nahal Yitla with a tunnel.[21] Conservation concerns therefore formed part of the project’s planning history as well as its engineering development.[21][23]

Work on the final tunnel portion was marked by an event on October 6, 2014, attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz.[24] That section extended about nine miles between the Sha’ar Hagai intersection on Route 1 and the Mevasseret Zion area.[24] Contemporary forecasts envisaged trains reaching 160 kilometers per hour, a Jerusalem–Tel Aviv journey of 28 minutes, and an opening in late 2017.[24] These were project targets rather than the timetable and opening date ultimately achieved.[3][24]

The electrified connection was described as approximately 57 kilometers long, including about 32 kilometers of new track between the Kfar Daniel area and Jerusalem.[18][25] Five tunnels and a series of bridges carried it through the hilly country between Jerusalem and Latrun.[4][22] More than half the route consisted of tunnels and bridges, allowing a faster and more direct journey than the old winding railway.[1] Individual structures included an 11.6-kilometer tunnel and a bridge about 1.25 kilometers long.[1]

The 11.6-kilometer tunnel was constructed as two adjacent bores, one for each direction, excavated with two tunnel-boring machines.[23] At Nahal Yitla, bridge construction employed a method allowing the structure to stand on a single pier.[23] Other major structures carried the railway high above the ground; contemporary reports described one of its bridges as the highest in Israel.[1][23] At the Jerusalem end, the railway reached platforms approximately 80 meters below ground.[2]

Project expenditure rose substantially above early estimates.[18] A 2019 estimate placed the cost at about NIS 7 billion, compared with an original estimate of NIS 2.8 billion.[18] Earlier projections had changed during planning: a 2011 account recorded an increase from NIS 3.18 billion to NIS 9 billion.[21] At the time direct service began, the official cost was reported as NIS 6.9 billion, while other estimates reached NIS 9 billion.[1] These figures describe estimates and reported costs at different stages rather than a single consistently stated final total.[1][18]

The planned March 2018 opening was postponed, and passenger operations began in September only between Jerusalem and Ben-Gurion Airport.[4][19] Electrification of the existing railway between the airport and Tel Aviv remained unfinished, preventing an immediate through electric service.[3][19] Police, fire-service, and emergency-response approvals also formed part of the preparations for passenger operations.[4] Consequently, the modern railway entered use in stages rather than opening at once as a complete direct Jerusalem–Tel Aviv connection.[3][4]

The new line’s trial-running phase began on September 25, 2018, initially connecting Yitzhak Navon station with Ben-Gurion Airport.[2][19] The airport journey took about 21 minutes.[19] Passengers continuing toward Tel Aviv had to change to another train because electrification into the city was incomplete; the onward service was operated by diesel trains.[3][4] The initial opening therefore provided Jerusalem with a new rail connection to the airport before direct electric trains reached Tel Aviv.[3][4]

Direct service between Yitzhak Navon and Tel Aviv’s Hahagana station began on the night of December 21, 2019, with a stop at Ben-Gurion Airport.[3] Published journey times were approximately 32–34 minutes, longer than the original 28-minute target but substantially shorter than the old route’s roughly 90-minute journey.[1] The opening timetable provided trains every 30 minutes on weekdays and also included Saturday-evening service.[1][3]

By 2021, travel from Navon station to Tel Aviv took between 30 and 45 minutes, depending on the destination station.[26] About 35 trains departed Jerusalem for Tel Aviv on regular weekdays, and passengers could travel without changing trains as far as Herzliya.[26] These service details describe the railway at the time of that account rather than an undated current timetable.[26]

Passenger use increased markedly when the new connection opened: between the beginning of trial running on September 25 and mid-December 2018, it carried more passengers to Jerusalem than the old Nahal Sorek route had carried throughout 2016.[2] The older Jerusalem–Tel Aviv route recorded 420,010 passengers in the fourth quarter of 2018, a figure that included journeys covering only part of the route.[26] In the first quarter of 2020, the Jerusalem–Tel Aviv section carried 752,960 passengers.[26]

The pandemic interrupted that pattern of travel, with passenger services suspended in April and May 2020.[26] In the fourth quarter of 2020, the section carried 352,800 passengers, well below its first-quarter figure.[26] The distinction between whole-route journeys and journeys on only part of the route is important to interpreting these counts, since the earlier figure explicitly included partial journeys.[26]

More than 80 percent of the historic railway’s goods traffic moved toward Jerusalem, with comparatively little export traffic in the opposite direction.[11] Passenger demand peaked in March and April.[11] Despite the advantages of rail transport, the line faced competition from camel transport, while the inconvenient locations of its Jaffa and Jerusalem stations counted among its commercial disadvantages.[11] The railway thus combined a substantial role in supplying Jerusalem with limitations arising from its termini and competing forms of transport.[11]

The railway’s completion in 1892 was an important economic and social development in Ottoman Palestine.[12] A historical account recorded Jaffa’s population as 10,000 in 1881 and 23,000 in 1892.[27] The connection linked maritime arrivals with inland travel and carried pilgrims, tourists, and freight between the coast and Jerusalem.[8][14]

The arrival of railway travel also occurred in a city where horses, camels, and donkeys still provided much local transportation.[6] The original Jerusalem station lay in the plain of Rephaim near the German Templar colony, roughly a 20-minute ride southwest of the city as then described.[6] The contrast between that setting and the underground modern terminus reflects the successive locations and forms of Jerusalem’s rail connection.[2][6]

The original Jerusalem station ceased operating in 1998 and subsequently reopened to the public as a cultural center.[15] The former Jaffa station, unused after 1948 and left in disrepair, opened as a museum and entertainment complex in 2010.[8] Both historic termini therefore remained public destinations after the end of their original railway functions.[8][15]

Yitzhak Navon station serves as the modern Jerusalem terminus near Binyanei HaUma, with platforms about 80 meters underground.[2][25] It was described at the opening of direct service as Israel’s deepest railway station.[1] Its western location differs from both the former Malha terminus in southern Jerusalem and the Ottoman-era station near the German Templar colony.[2][6]

The historic Jerusalem station is an important surviving Ottoman-era public building, associated with the city’s railway history and its reception of visitors during the British Mandate.[15] The former Jaffa station likewise preserves a historic endpoint of the original railway within its later museum and entertainment use.[8] Malha represented a subsequent stage in Jerusalem’s passenger railway geography, serving as the older line’s southern terminus after the original central station closed.[2]

A 2019 planning account envisaged extending the modern railway toward central Jerusalem and southward to the former Malha station.[2] In 2023, plans for two additional stations were filed with the National Infrastructure Committee.[9] The proposed Jerusalem Central station would be near Jaffa Road and King George Street, with platforms about 80 meters underground.[9] A second proposed station, Jerusalem Khan, would be near the First Station complex and Khan Theater, approximately 50 meters underground.[9] These proposals remained within planning and approval procedures, with details still subject to change rather than representing completed extensions.[9]

The modern route’s passage beyond the Green Line drew criticism from Israeli left-wing and pro-Palestinian groups.[28][29] In 2011, Deutsche Bahn ended its participation in the project, where it had been responsible for electricity and communications control, citing concerns that the route passed through “Palestinian territories” and might violate international law.[29] The withdrawal occurred amid campaigning and pressure from German, Palestinian, and Israeli actors; the legal question was described as debatable rather than resolved.[29]

Environmental organizations also challenged the route through the Nahal Yitla area, seeking a tunnel instead of the planned bridge.[21] The National Planning Council approved the route in 2009, and the bridge was subsequently constructed using a single-pier method.[21][23]