Israel Railways announced on Tuesday that schedules would be further interrupted in the coming days, shuttering all train traffic through Tel Aviv for seven days.
The company said it decided to carry out routine maintenance work alongside ongoing repairs that have already shut down much of the route in central Israel, after a freight train damaged several hundred meters of electric cable infrastructure near the Ganot Junction, south of Tel Aviv, last Thursday.
The repairs, which are expected to take a week and a half to complete, have already caused significant disruptions to train traffic
Passengers traveling between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv have been required to switch at Ben Gurion Airport, as the electric-powered trains that operate along the route cannot continue into Tel Aviv. Diesel-powered trains have been operating as an alternative.
In addition, trains running along the Ashkelon-Binyamina and Beit Shemesh-Netanya lines have been terminating at Lod until the infrastructure is repaired, and service has been canceled altogether between Ganei Aviv and Kfar Chabad.
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On Tuesday, Israel Railways said additional train stations in Tel Aviv would be shuttered, and there would be no service through the busy city from Wednesday, August 20, until August 26.
It said that it decided to “take advantage of the opportunity” posed by the need to repair the damaged electrical cables and would be carrying out safety and maintenance work on the tracks.
The maintenance work had originally been scheduled for September, but the rail network said in a statement that it had decided to bring it forward so as not to cause “twice as much harm to the traveling public.”
Passengers disembark at the Yitzhak Navon train station in Jerusalem on August 17, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
As a result, the Tel Aviv HaShalom railway station will be shuttered for the next seven days, joining Tel Aviv HaHagana, which has been closed since Friday morning.
This means that trains from Jerusalem and Modi’in will only be able to travel as far as Ben Gurion Airport, while trains from northern Israel will not be able to continue past Tel Aviv Savidor Center, and trains from the south will terminate at the Lod railway station.
Acknowledging the impact of these changes on passengers, Israel Railways said that “to make things easier for the public,” it would be operating a temporary rail replacement bus service between Tel Aviv HaHagana, Tel Aviv HaShalom, and Tel Aviv Savidor Center, free of charge, with buses running every five minutes.
Despite the heavy disruptions — which on Sunday were compounded by a nationwide strike that saw large protests shut down some of Israel’s busiest roads — Transportation Minister Miri Regev insisted on Monday that there was “no transportation chaos,” and that the situation was merely “unpleasant.”
Her comments contradicted the opinions of Israel Railways officials, who told media outlets last week that the damage caused by the freight train was “a mega-event like no other we have experienced.”
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