A major freight spill on Israel Railways this week, caused by alleged negligence, left thousands of passengers and soldiers stranded on platforms after iron pipes slid onto the tracks. According to the report, the cargo train had been secured only with two straps and a small support beam, and when the load shifted on a curve, workers detached one car and left the rest to continue. The support beam collapsed, the pipes scattered across the rails, and the system ground to a halt. One senior rail manager said, "Do you know what damage this caused? It broke the fences and reached the road."
The investigation says the crisis is part of a broader pattern of failures at the company, where multiple managers have resigned, employees have been reprimanded, and two CEOs have already left amid constant clashes with the powerful workers’ committee. Transport Minister Miri Regev and board chair Moshe Shimoni are portrayed as having avoided accountability, while longtime labor leader turned manager Gila Adre'i has received unusual backing from the leadership.
Adre'i was promoted three years ago to deputy department head with a better salary and perks after management sought labor peace. But employees say she continued to abuse company resources. In the past month, cameras allegedly captured her twice using a rail utility vehicle for personal errands during work hours, including shopping at a nearby Osher Ad supermarket. One worker said she spent 12.5 hours on duty that day, with four of them devoted to personal shopping, and that the response from the minister’s office was dismissive.
The report also details a 300,000-shekel renovation of Adre'i’s office, excluding VAT, after 11,500 shekels were first spent on measurements. Workers described a private 70-square-meter suite, new stonework, designer fixtures, special curtains, granite flooring, custom colors, a keypad entrance, and plans for private parking and a synthetic-grass garden. Separately, the railway flew about 20 senior managers to Poland for an official Holocaust-related study trip, even as arrest proceedings continued in the wider labor corruption probe and union chairman Liav Eliyahu attended the trip. The story ends with a half-million-shekel German forklift stranded outside a Haifa warehouse because it is too tall to fit through the door, exposing what the report calls repeated waste and disregard for public money.
