Israel Railways Opens Eastern Railway Line, Adding New Stations and Weekend Service

After years of infrastructure work, Israel will open the Eastern Railway on Sunday, June 28, in the first major rail line since the state’s founding to directly serve parts of the Sharon and Samaria regions. The Transportation Ministry says the new route is meant to ease heavy congestion on the coastal rail corridor and will initially operate in a partial, phased format.

Three new stations will open on the line’s northern section, Hadera East, Samaria-Tayibe, and Tira-Kokhav Ya'ir. They will connect through the upgraded Ra'anana North station, where passengers will have to change trains to continue to central and southern Israel. The ministry says the average transfer time at Ra'anana North will be about seven minutes most of the day.

The line will run Sunday through Thursday from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., with two trains per hour in each direction. Travel time to Tel Aviv will be about 60 minutes from Hadera East, 46 minutes from Samaria-Tayibe, and 39 minutes from Tira-Kokhav Ya'ir. The 64-kilometer route runs near Route 6, and once engineering work and electrification are completed, it is expected to extend to Elad, Shoham-Airport, and Lod, enabling continuous southbound travel without transfers.

The ministry says the new railway will bypass Tel Aviv’s rail bottleneck and increase the national rail network’s service capacity by about 30%. At the same time, Israel Railways will restore extended Friday and Saturday night service at dozens of stations nationwide, ending a period of reduced hours and partial closures during the construction work. Friday service will run until around 4:00 p.m., and Saturday night service until 1:00 a.m. The change affects stations including Nahariya, Karmiel, Netanya, Beit Shemesh, and Beersheba. The ministry also said the project is intended to meet demand after 2025 ridership reached a record 72 million passengers.