Lod–Ashkelon railway

The Lod–Ashkelon railway is a railway line linking

double track

in central and southern Israel.

History

British map from 1944, showing the old and the new railway lines around Majdal (Ashkelon)

The railway traces its origins to the

Sinai and Palestine military campaign of World War I. The main Turkish objective in the Middle East during World War I was to either capture or disable the Suez Canal, which would have put the British Empire at a great disadvantage. However, transporting troops and supplies from Constantinople to the front lines took months by camel caravan.^[1]

After his assault on the British garrison along the canal in January–February 1915,

1,050 mm (3 ft 511⁄32 in) narrow gauge standard, allowing rail traffic from Hejaz railway via the Eastern railway

to continue further south from Lydda (Lod).

When the British captured the territory in 1918, they dismantled both "Egyptian Branch" railways, save for a short section between Beit Hanoun and Majdal. This 13-km-long section was converted into 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)

El Kantara, Egypt via Gaza City, Majdal (Ashkelon), Lydda and Hadera to Haifa. A whole new, much more direct, standard gauge railway section was built from Majdal via Isdud (Ashdod) and Yibna (Yavne) to Lydda; one of the purposes for the new route was to enable shipment of citrus fruits from orchards around Rehovot to the port of Haifa

.

The

USSR, then in 1942 to Iran, then brought by the Jewish Agency for Israel by sea to Suez, and from there on a train to the Yishuv—travelled the whole length of the Lod–Ashkelon railway, stopping at Rehovot railway station

on February 18, 1943, before continuing further north.

During the

Six-day War in 1967) and Tel Aviv

.

In November 1961, a short branch line to the port of Ashdod was opened just north of the city of Ashdod; then, on 17 November 1982, Heletz railway connected the branch line to the port of Ashdod with the railway to Beersheba, allowing the freight traffic between the south of Israel and the port to bypass the busy railways around Lod. One more branch line, to Rutenberg Power Station just south of Ashkelon, opened in 1990 to supply the power station with coal imported via the port of Ashdod. This branch line is out of use since 2000, when a pier was built at the power station to allow unloading the coal directly from the ships.

The regular passenger service was introduced between Lod and Rehovot in 1990, then extended to Ashdod in 1992, and later to Ashkelon in 2005. Between 1999 and 2001, the section between Lod and Rehovot was converted to double track.

In 2002–2003, a short 3-km-long branch line was built from

high-speed railway to Jerusalem

.

In 2013, the Coastal railway was connected to the Lod–Ashkelon railway, enabling a direct passenger service from Tel Aviv and the north of Israel to Ashdod and Ashkelon, without going through Lod. From Yad Mordechai, the southern end of the Lod–Ashkelon railway, the line has been extended to Beersheba through the northern Negev. This extension was completed in 2015.

In 2021 the section between Ashdod and Ashkelon was

electrified the using an overhead line 25 kV 50Hz AC

system. The section between Lod and Rehovot was electrified in 2022, while the remainder of the line, between Rehovot and Ashdod, is expected to undergo electrification in 2023.