Israel Railways CEO: We aim for 300m passengers by 2040

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Israel Railways CEO Moshe Jana told Globes transport correspondent Asaf Zagrizak at the Globes Infrastructure for the Future Conference that, "We are in the midst of railways revolution."

He explained his words by saying that today there is an investment of "NIS 67 billion in Israel Railways infrastructure, and with all the cuts we have gone through, the Minister of Transport and Director General of the ministry insisted on not touching a shekel from the railway projects. That is a statement in my opinion."

Jana added that the plan is to "Double the amount of tracks, so that by 2040 we will already have 2,600 kilometers of track. In terms of passengers, we will have 105 million in 2030 and 300 million in 2040. These are not imaginary numbers, but numbers that we are part of the five-year plan. The dream - 30 minutes gross from Beersheva or Haifa to Tel Aviv".

The plan: two trains an hour to the Western Negev - from August

Jana also addressed the criticism that there is only one train per hour on the line serving the Western Negev, which was reopened only this week: "In a fairly rapid recovery process after October 7, we managed to open all the stations, except for one section that the Southern Command banned from operating. We wanted to bring good news to the Western Negev, but the Ministry of Defense did not allow it. Fortunately, in the end it happened. Indeed, there is currently only one train per hour on this line, but we are looking at increasing it to two trains per hour during rush hours. When we finish electrifying the entire region next August, there will be two trains per hour."

Regarding the expected decision to invest in the near future only in existing infrastructure and not in new infrastructure for Israel Railways, he said: "This is a bad decision in my opinion. Israel Railways stands on three legs - passengers, freight and infrastructure development. Infrastructure development is the future of the railway and without it there is no future. A railway project takes10 to 15 or 17 years - these are very long processes. If Israel Railways does not do it, in my opinion it is less good. Fortunately, we have partners, Netivei Israel, for example, and together we are working on integration and connecting projects. Even if there are not always agreements."

In this context, he also responded to rumors that his working relationship with Netivei Israel director general Nissim Peretz is not good: "Nissim Peretz is a friend from the army, and all the rumors are 'nonsense'. We get along well, sometimes we disagree and that is normal. We sit together and continue to discuss how to do good for the State of Israel."

Full disclosure: The conference was sponsored by Ackerstein, CAF, Israel Railways, Netivei Israel, and Egged and with the participation of Ashdod Port and Mekorot.

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on February 3, 2025.

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