Private company

Israel Railways

Logo: Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons³

State-owned Israeli railway company

Israel Railways Ltd. (Hebrew: רַכֶּבֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל, Rakevet Yisra'el) is the state-owned principal railway company responsible for all inter-city, commuter, and freight rail transport in Israel. Israel Railways network consists of 1,541 kilometers (958 mi) of track. All its lines are standard gauge but some were originally built to other gauges and later regauged.² Its chief executive is Moshe Zana.¹ It employed 1,900 people.¹ Its revenue was ILS 940 million in 2015.¹ Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1948Founded¹

Industryrail transport in Israel¹
HeadquartersLod Railway Station¹
Founded inIsrael¹
Websitewww.rail.co.il
Legal formlimited company¹
Listed onTel Aviv Stock Exchange (RAIL)¹
Slogan“ENJOY THE RIDE”¹

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Israel Railways Ltd. (Hebrew: רַכֶּבֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל, Rakevet Yisra'el) is the state-owned principal railway company responsible for all inter-city, commuter, and freight rail transport in Israel. Israel Railways network consists of 1,541 kilometers (958 mi) of track. All its lines are standard gauge but some were originally built to other gauges and later regauged. Electrification began in 2018 with the new line to Jerusalem and there are plans to electrify the entire network at 25 kV 50 Hz supplied via overhead line. The network is centered in Israel's densely populated coastal plain, from which lines radiate out in many directions. In 2025, Israel Railways carried 71.8 million passengers.²

Corporate structure

Israel Railways sits at the top of its group. 1 entity, 1 country on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

Israel Railways Lod Railway Station
- Hadera East railway station Owned · Haifa District, Israel
- Haifa East railway station Owned · Haifa, Israel
- Israel Railway Museum Owned · Haifa, Israel
- Jerusalem – Malha Railway Station Owned · Jerusalem, Israel
- Jerusalem – Yitzhak Navon railway station Owned · Jerusalem, Israel
- Jerusalem—Khan railway station Owned · Jerusalem, Israel
- Migdal HaEmek – Kfar Baruch Railway Station Owned · Migdal HaEmek, Israel
- Ramla Railway Station Owned · Ramla, Israel
- Rehovot Railway Station Owned · Rehovot, Israel
- Rishon LeZion – Moshe Dayan Railway Station Owned · Rishon LeZion, Israel
- Rosh HaAyin South railway station Owned · Central District, Israel
- Tel Aviv South railway station Owned · Tel Aviv, Israel
- Yokneam – Kfar Yehoshua Railway Station Owned · Israel
- Zikhron Ya'aqov railway station Owned · Zichron Yaakov, Israel

Built from subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0); major holders from Schedules 13D and 13G. Each entity in the chart links to its source.

What it owns

What Israel Railways reports owning in its annual reports to the SEC: buildings, land and equipment, real estate and locations, investments, intangible assets and inventory, at the end of its latest fiscal year and a year before.

Stakes and holdings (Wikidata)

Hadera East railway station
Haifa East railway station
Israel Railway Museum
Jerusalem – Malha Railway Station
Jerusalem – Yitzhak Navon railway station
Jerusalem—Khan railway station
Migdal HaEmek – Kfar Baruch Railway Station
Ramla Railway Station
Rehovot Railway Station
Rishon LeZion – Moshe Dayan Railway Station
Rosh HaAyin South railway station
Tel Aviv South railway station
Yokneam – Kfar Yehoshua Railway Station
Zikhron Ya'aqov railway station

Things Wikidata records the company as owning, with the share when stated.¹

Leadership

Who has led Israel Railways, and when. Pick a name to see everywhere that person has worked.

Chief executive officerMoshe Zana¹

Products and brands

Due to increasing demand, Israel Railways is pursuing expansion to its infrastructure network.

The 64 km (40 mi) long Eastern Railway, which will connect Hadera to Kfar Saba and then to Lod, running parallel to the Coastal Railway, began construction in 2019 and is scheduled to open in 2027, with partial opening of the line from Hadera–East to Rosh HaAyin–North occurring at the end of June 2026. This line follows the disused route of the Ottoman-period Tulkarm–Lydda railroad, which was abandoned in 1968, and will allow freight and passenger trains to bypass the congested Hadera–Herzliya corridor.

The 30 km (19 mi) Rishon LeZion–Modi'in Railway also began construction in 2019, with opening planned in 2026. This line will create an east-west link south of Tel Aviv, crossing the Tel Aviv–Ashkelon, Tel Aviv–Beersheba and Tel Aviv–Jerusalem rail corridors.

Since 2019, work is underway to quadruple the 3.5 km (2.2 mi) section of the Ayalon Railway from Tel Aviv Center to Tel Aviv HaHagana, which forms a critical bottleneck for the entire rail network. Upon completion, this project will nearly double the capacity of the corridor, allowing a significant increase in train frequency across the network. Completion is scheduled for 2028.

From Wikipedia’s article on Israel Railways, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.⁴

Subsidiaries and ownership

Owners

Israel

Also owns

Hadera East railway station
Haifa East railway station
Israel Railway Museum
Jerusalem – Malha Railway Station
Jerusalem – Yitzhak Navon railway station
Jerusalem—Khan railway station
Migdal HaEmek – Kfar Baruch Railway Station
Ramla Railway Station
Rehovot Railway Station
Rishon LeZion – Moshe Dayan Railway Station
Rosh HaAyin South railway station
Tel Aviv South railway station
Yokneam – Kfar Yehoshua Railway Station
Zikhron Ya'aqov railway station

From Wikidata.¹

Revenue over time

As stated on Wikidata, in the currency reported.

Revenue

2015940.0M ILS¹

Controversies and legal

Notable accidents

On 26 December 1963 two passenger trains on the then single-track main line linking Tel Aviv and Haifa collided head-on at Bet Yehoshua just south of Netanya. The northbound train had passed a red signal and its locomotive rode over and crushed the locomotive of the southbound train. None of the coaches was derailed but a coupler broke in the northbound train detaching the rear three coaches. The continuous train brake should have then automatically stopped the detached coaches but it had not been connected properly so they started to roll back southwards. 55 people were injured but only three seriously enough to be detained in hospital. The two head-end crews survived but their locomotives, EMD G12s 105 and 118, were destroyed.

HaBonim disaster: On 11 June 1985 a train collided with a bus carrying school children, killing 19 children and 3 adults, near moshav HaBonim.

On 21 June 2005 an IC3 train crashed into a freight truck near kibbutz Revadim, killing 8 and injuring 198.

8 July 2005, a train collided with a truck between Kiryat Gat and Ahuzam, resulting in the death of the train driver and 38 injuries. In February 2012 a plea bargain had been set for the Revadim crash.

On 12 June 2006 a train crashed into a truck near Beit Yehoshua, killing 5 and injuring from 77 to over 80.

On 27 December 2009 a train crashed into a car near Kiryat Gat. The driver proceeded without regard to the train checkpoint on the road. The train struck his car and he was killed.

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On 5 August 2010 a train crashed into a minibus near Kiryat Gat, killing 7 and injuring 6. The minibus was hit at 19:05 GMT+3 on Route 353, apparently as it tried to pass over a level crossing.

On 28 December 2010 a fire started in a train near kibbutz Yakum, probably because of a short circuit, injuring 116.

On 7 April 2011 two trains collided frontally near Netanya, injuring 59.

On 4 October 2013, two men walking along railroad tracks in the Emek Hefer valley industrial zone were killed by a train.

On 18 December 2013, a Beersheba-bound train collided with a group of camels walking along railroad tracks at the Segev Shalom Junction in the Negev, killing 14 camels. The incident caused massive delays in train traffic.

On 29 December 2013, an Israel Railways worker was run down and killed by a train near Lod.

On 15 March 2016, an Israel Railways locomotive crashed into freight wagons, injuring 6.