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

Israel Railways CEO Moshe Jana informed Globes transport correspondent Asaf Zagrizak on the Globes Infrastructure for the Future Convention that, “We’re within the midst of railways revolution.”

He defined his phrases by saying that in the present day there’s an funding of “NIS 67 billion in Israel Railways infrastructure, and with all of the cuts we now have gone by, the Minister of Transport and Director Normal of the ministry insisted on not touching a shekel from the railway initiatives. That could be a assertion for my part.”

Jana added that the plan is to “Double the quantity of tracks, in order that by 2040 we are going to have already got 2,600 kilometers of observe. By way of passengers, we could have 105 million in 2030 and 300 million in 2040. These usually are not imaginary numbers, however numbers that we’re a part of the five-year plan. The dream – half-hour gross from Beersheva or Haifa to Tel Aviv”.

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

Jana additionally addressed the criticism that there’s just one prepare per hour on the road serving the Western Negev, which was reopened solely this week: “In a reasonably fast restoration course of after October 7, we managed to open all of the stations, aside from one part that the Southern Command banned from working. We needed to deliver excellent news to the Western Negev, however the Ministry of Protection didn’t permit it. Luckily, ultimately it occurred. Certainly, there’s presently just one prepare per hour on this line, however we’re taking a look at rising it to 2 trains per hour throughout rush hours. After we end electrifying the complete area subsequent August, there will likely be two trains per hour.”

Concerning the anticipated choice to spend money on the close to future solely in current infrastructure and never in new infrastructure for Israel Railways, he mentioned: “It is a unhealthy choice for my part. Israel Railways stands on three legs – passengers, freight and infrastructure growth. Infrastructure growth is the way forward for the railway and with out it there is no such thing as a future. A railway undertaking takes10 to fifteen or 17 years – these are very lengthy processes. If Israel Railways doesn’t do it, for my part it’s much less good. Luckily, we now have companions, Netivei Israel, for instance, and collectively we’re engaged on integration and connecting initiatives. Even when there usually are not at all times agreements.”

On this context, he additionally responded to rumors that his working relationship with Netivei Israel director basic Nissim Peretz is just not good: “Nissim Peretz is a buddy from the military, and all of the rumors are ‘nonsense’. We get alongside effectively, typically we disagree and that’s regular. We sit collectively and proceed to debate methods to do good for the State of Israel.”

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

Printed by Globes, Israel enterprise information – en.globes.co.il – on February 3, 2025.

© Copyright of Globes Writer Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.