Eastern Rail Line Opens Partly, Marking a Historic First With Major Gaps

Israel’s eastern rail line is set to begin operating on Sunday as the first commercial train service opened since 2018. For now, it will run only partially, with three new stations in service, and the first trains will serve the northern segment built by Netivei Israel. The line will reach the upgraded North Rosh HaAyin station, where passengers will need to change trains to continue to Tel Aviv and the rest of the country.

The new stations are Hadera-East, Shomron-Tayibe, and Tirah-Kokhav Ya’ir. For the first time since statehood, rail service is reaching inside Arab localities, including stations near Tayibe and Tirah, where residents have long faced especially poor public transport. Travel times to Tel Aviv, including the transfer at Rosh HaAyin, are listed as 60 minutes from Hadera-East, 46 minutes from Shomron-Tayibe, and 39 minutes from Tirah-Kokhav Ya’ir.

The launch has several limitations. The line has not been electrified, so diesel trains will operate more slowly, there will be no weekend service yet, and feeder bus service has not been substantially upgraded, leaving most access dependent on private cars. The line will run Sunday through Thursday from about 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., with two trains per hour in each direction. Later, after engineering work and electrification are completed, service is expected to extend to Shoham-Airport, Elad, and Lod, and weekend operations will begin.

Rail users and transport activists welcomed the project but warned that weak connectivity could blunt its impact. Roni Barak of Sikkuy-Aufoq said success in Tirah and Tayibe depends on changing urban travel habits and funding significant local bus networks. Max Morogovsky, head of “Transport the Way We Want It,” called it an important project that was supposed to have been built 20 years ago, but said the stations are poorly connected and too far from built-up areas. He also said the rail link to Jerusalem and Ben Gurion Airport has not yet been budgeted.

The eastern line was originally planned as a freight project. It was developed as a passenger initiative starting in 2003 under former prime minister Ariel Sharon and minister Ephraim Sneh, and was formally designated a national project in 2012 under Benjamin Netanyahu and Yisrael Katz. The full line is expected to be completed in 2027 as a roughly 64-kilometer double-track electrified route from Hadera to Lod, with seven stations in total. Once finished, officials say it could increase national service by about 30%, ease congestion on the coastal line, remove hundreds of trucks from roads each day, and reduce pollution and accidents. Transport Minister Miri Regev called the opening “a historic moment” for Israel’s transport revolution.