Israel Railways

Israel Railways ( _he. רכבת ישראל, "Rakévet Yisra'él") is Israel's government-owned national railway company and is responsible for all inter-city and suburban railway passenger and freight traffic in the country. It utilizes the standard gauge in all its lines. The network is centered in Israel's densely populated coastal plain from where lines radiate out from Tel Aviv in many directions. Unlike road vehicles, Israeli trains run on the left side of the tracks.

Lines

The current and future plans for Israel Railways divide its passenger routes into eight operational lines:

Rolling stock

Israel Railways employs the following passenger trains and locomotives (partial list):
*Bombardier Double-deck Coach (since 2001)
*GEC-Alsthom PRIMA series locomotives (JT42BW and JT42CW, GM-EMD-powered) (since 1996)
*Various G-series (G12, G16, G26) GM-EMD export locomotives (since 1955)
*ABB Scandia IC3 (since 1992)
*Boris Kidrič/Metalka "Yugo" (since 1964-72) [Cite web|url=http://www.railnewsil.com/rolling/coachlist_h_3.html|accessdate=2008-02-15|title=Israel Railways Passenger Trains - Details on Short Iron Carriage Types|language=Hebrew] [Cite web|url=http://www.israrail.org.il/general/equip7.html|title=General Information - Types of Rolling Stock in Use|accessdate=2008-02-15|publisher=Israel Railways|language=Hebrew]
*Siemens coaches in style of Austrian ÖBB Railjet (will be delivered at 2008-2009) [http://www.siemens.at/transportation/pages_en/a_2006_04_03.htm]

Railway disasters

*In 1972, a train crashed into a military truck, killing 18 soldiers.
*On June 11, 1985, a train crashed into a bus carrying school children, killing 19 children and 3 adults, near moshav HaBonim.
*On June 21, 2005, a train crashed into a freight truck near kibbutz Revadim, killing 8 and injuring 198. [cite news|url=http://www.somethingjewish.co.uk/articles/1504_israeli_train_crash.htm|accessdate=2007-10-03|title=Israeli train crash|author=Tova Dadon|date=2005-06-25|publisher=Ynetnews]
*On June 12, 2006, a train crashed into a truck near Beit Yehoshua, killing 5 and injuring from 77 to over 80. [cite news|url=http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3261798,00.html|accessdate=2007-10-03|title=Train accident in the Sharon region - 5 dead, dozens wounded|author=Ra'anan Ben-Tzur, Oren Rice|date=2006-06-12|publisher=Ynet|language=Hebrew] [cite news|url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/840847.html|accessdate=2007-10-03|title=Police: Try Israel Railways head for negligence over fatal crash|author=Roni Singer-Heruti|date=2007-03-22|publisher=Haaretz]

ee also

*Jaffa-Jerusalem railway
*Jezreel Valley railway

References

* "The Railways of Palestine and Israel", Paul Cotterell, 1986, [http://www.tourretpublishing.com Tourret Publishing] , ISBN 0-905878-04-3.

External links

* [http://www.rail.co.il/ Israel Railways (Official Web site)]