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{{Infobox rail , railroad_name = Palestine Railway , logo_filename = , logo_size = , system_map = , map_caption = , map_size = , marks = , image = AwmB00283.Samakh.jpg , image_size = 250px , image_caption = Samakh station, shortly after being captured by
Australian light horse Australian Light Horse were mounted troops with characteristics of both cavalry and mounted infantry, who served in the Second Boer War and World War I. During the inter-war years, a number of regiments were raised as part of Australia's part-ti ...
men on 25 September 1918 , locale =
British Mandate of Palestine British Mandate of Palestine or Palestine Mandate most often refers to: * Mandate for Palestine: a League of Nations mandate under which the British controlled an area which included Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan. * Mandatory P ...
; northern coast of
Sinai Sinai commonly refers to: * Sinai Peninsula, Egypt * Mount Sinai, a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt * Biblical Mount Sinai, the site in the Bible where Moses received the Law of God Sinai may also refer to: * Sinai, South Dakota, a place ...
, start_year = 1920 , end_year = 1948 , predecessor_line = Sinai Military Railway,
Jaffa–Jerusalem railway The Jaffa–Jerusalem railway (also J & J) is a railway that connected Jaffa and Jerusalem. The line was built in the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem (Ottoman Syria) by the French company ''Société du Chemin de Fer Ottoman de Jaffa à Jérusalem et P ...
, Jezreel Valley and Acre branches of Hejaz Railway , successor_line = Israel:
Israel Railways Israel Railways Ltd. , dba Israel Railways ( he, רַכֶּבֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל, ''Rakevet Yisra'el''), is the state-owned principal railway company responsible for all inter-city, commuter, and freight rail transport in Israel. Isr ...

Egypt:
Egyptian National Railways Egyptian National Railways (ENR; ar, السكك الحديدية المصرية, Al-Sikak al-Ḥadīdiyyah al-Miṣriyyah) is the national railway of Egypt and managed by the parastatal Egyptian Railway Authority (ERA; ar, الهيئة الق ...
, gauge = {{RailGauge, 1435mm, allk=on,
and {{RailGauge, 1050mm, lk=on , old_gauge = {{RailGauge, 1050mm , length = , hq_city = Khoury House,
Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...
{{sfn, Sherman, 2001, p=232 , website = , embedded = {{Switcher , {{BS-map , title = Palestine Railways & HBT railway (1945) , collapse = yes , map = {{BS3, , , exLSTR, , , North to
Aleppo )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...
and
Baghdad Railway Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
{{BS3, , , exBHF, ,
Homs Homs ( , , , ; ar, حِمْص / ALA-LC: ; Levantine Arabic: / ''Ḥomṣ'' ), known in pre-Islamic Syria as Emesa ( ; grc, Ἔμεσα, Émesa), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level ...
{{BS5, BOOT, exKBHFa, , exSTR, , ,
Tartus ) , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = , imagesize = , image_caption = Tartus corniche  Port of Tartus • Tartus beach and boulevard  Cathedral of Our Lady of Tortosa • Al-Assad Stadium&n ...
{{BS3, exABZgl+l, exBSTq, exABZgr, , Al Akkari {{BS3, exSTR, O1=GRZq, , exSTR, O3=GRZq, , , ''Border, Lebanon/Syria'' {{BS5, BOOT, exBHF, , exSTR, , ,
Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...
''Limit of railway south until 1941'' {{BS3, HST, , exSTR, , ,
Batroun Batroun ( ar, ٱلْبَتْرُون '; Syriac script: ܒܬܪܘܢ ') is a coastal city in northern Lebanon and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It is the capital city of Batroun District. Etymology The name ''Bat ...
{{BS5, BOOT, BHF, , exSTR, , ,
Chekka Chekka is coastal town located in North Lebanon. It is located north of Râs ach-Chaq’a’ and Herri beaches, or Theoprosopon of classical times and south of the ancient Phoenician port of Enfeh and the city of Tripoli. The origin of the word ...
{{BS3, STR, , exHST, , ,
Baalbek Baalbek (; ar, بَعْلَبَكّ, Baʿlabakk, Syriac-Aramaic: ܒܥܠܒܟ) is a city located east of the Litani River in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, about northeast of Beirut. It is the capital of Baalbek-Hermel Governorate. In Greek and Roman ...
{{BS3, TUNNEL1, , exSTR, , , Chekka tunnel {{BS3, HST, , exSTR, , ,
Jubail Jubail ( ar, الجبيل, ''Al Jubayl'') is a city in the Eastern province on the Persian Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia, with a total population of 684,531 as of 2021. It is home to the largest industrial city in the world. It is also home to th ...
{{BS3, HST, , exSTR, , , Jounie {{BS5, , STR, , exSTR, uSTR+l, , , Hejaz Railway to
Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...
{{BS5, , STR, , exKXBHFe-L, uXBHF-R, ,
Riyaq Rayaq - Haouch Hala ( ar, رياق), also romanization of Arabic, romanized Rayak, is a Lebanon, Lebanese town in the Beqaa Governorate, Beqaa Mohafazat, Governorate near the city of Zahlé. In the early 20th century and up to 1975 and the outbrea ...
''Limit of railway south by 1941'' {{BS5, , HST, uSTR+l, uSTRq, uSTRr, , , Antilyas {{BS3, STR, uSTR, , } {{BS5, BOOT, XBHF-L, uKXBHFe-R, , , ,
Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
{{BS5, BOOT, BHF, , , , ,
Sidon Sidon ( ; he, צִידוֹן, ''Ṣīḏōn'') known locally as Sayda or Saida ( ar, صيدا ''Ṣaydā''), is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate, of which it is the capital, on the Mediterranean coast. ...
{{BS3, HST, , , , , Ez Zahrani {{BS5, BOOT, BHF, , , , , Tyre {{BS3, HST, , , , ,
Naqoura Naqoura (, ''Enn Nâqoura, Naqoura, An Nāqūrah'') is a small city in southern Lebanon. Since March 23, 1978, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has been headquartered in Naqoura. Name According to E. H. Palmer (1881), the nam ...
{{BS3, STR, O1=GRZq, , , , , ''Border, Palestine/Lebanon'' {{BS3, HST, , , , ,
Az-Zeeb Achziv ( he, אַכְזִיב} ''ʾAḵzīḇ''; ar, الزيب, ''Az-Zīb'') is an ancient site on the Mediterranean coast of northern Israel, between the border with Lebanon and the city of Acre. It is located north of Acre on the coast of ...
{{BS3, STR, uKBHFa, , , ,
Acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...
{{BS3, XBHF-L, uXBHF-R, , , ,
Kiryat Motzkin Kiryat Motzkin ( he, קִרְיַת מוֹצְקִין) is a city in the Haifa District of Israel, north of the city of Haifa. In it had a population of . The city is named after Leo Motzkin (1867-1933), one of the organizers of the First Zionis ...
{{BS3, XBHF-L, uXBHF-R, , , , Haifa East ''Limit of railway north until 1941'' {{BS5, BOOT, XBHF-L, uXBHF-R, , , , Haifa Centre {{BS3, HST, uSTR, , , , Kafr es Samir {{BS3, HST, uSTR, , , ,
Athlit ''Athlit'' is an album by ambient musician Oöphoi Gianluigi Gasparetti (26 March 1958 – 12 April 2013), known by the pseudonym Oöphoi, was an Italian ambient musician. He is perhaps best known for his role as the editor of ''Deep L ...
{{BS5, , STR, uSTRl, uABZq+l, uBHFq, , ,
Afula Afula ( he, עפולה Arabic: العفولة) is a city in the Northern District of Israel, often known as the "Capital of the Valley" due to its strategic location in the Jezreel Valley. As of , the city had a population of . Afula's ancient ...
on
Jezreel Valley railway The Jezreel Valley railway, or the Valley Train ( he, רַכֶּבֶת הָעֵמֶק, ''Rakevet HaEmek'' ; ar, خط سكة حديد حيفا – درعا, khaṭṭ sikkat ḥadīd Ḥayfa–Dar‘a) was a railroad that existed in Ottoman and ...
to
Daraa Daraa ( ar, دَرْعَا, Darʿā, Levantine Arabic: , also Darʿā, Dara’a, Deraa, Dera'a, Dera, Derʿā and Edrei; means "''fortress''", compare Dura-Europos) is a city in southwestern Syria, located about north of the border with Jordan ...
{{BS3, HST, , uSTR, , , Benjamina {{BS3, HST, , uSTR, , ,
Hadera Hadera ( he, חֲדֵרָה ) is a city located in the Haifa District of Israel, in the northern Sharon region, approximately 45 kilometers (28 miles) from the major cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa. The city is located along 7 km (5&nbs ...
{{BS3, KRWl, KRW+r, uSTR, } {{BS3, , XBHF-L, uKXBHFe-R, , ,
Tulkarem Tulkarm, Tulkarem or Tull Keram ( ar, طولكرم, ''Ṭūlkarm'') is a Palestinian city in the West Bank, located in the Tulkarm Governorate of the State of Palestine. The Israeli city of Netanya is to the west, and the Palestinian cities of ...
{{BS3, , HST, , , ,
Qalqilyah Qalqilya or Qalqiliya ( ar, قلقيلية, Qalqīlyaḧ) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank which serves as the administrative center of the Qalqilya Governorate of the State of Palestine. In the 2007 census, the city had a population of 41, ...
{{BS3, , HST, , , ,
Ras al-Ayn Ras al-Ayn ( ar, رَأْس ٱلْعَيْن, Raʾs al-ʿAyn, ku, سەرێ کانیێ, Serê Kaniyê, syc, ܪܝܫ ܥܝܢܐ, Rēš Aynā), also spelled Ras al-Ain, is a city in al-Hasakah Governorate in northeastern Syria, on the Syria–Turkey ...
{{BS3, , HST, , , , Kafr Jinnis {{BS5, BOOT, KBHFa, STR, , , ,
Jaffa Jaffa, in Hebrew Yafo ( he, יָפוֹ, ) and in Arabic Yafa ( ar, يَافَا) and also called Japho or Joppa, the southern and oldest part of Tel Aviv-Yafo, is an ancient port city in Israel. Jaffa is known for its association with the b ...
{{BS3, HST, STR, , , ,
Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...
{{BS3, KRWl, KRWg+r, , } {{BS3, , BHF, , ,
Lydda Lod ( he, לוד, or fully vocalized ; ar, اللد, al-Lidd or ), also known as Lydda ( grc, Λύδδα), is a city southeast of Tel Aviv and northwest of Jerusalem in the Central District of Israel. It is situated between the lower Shephe ...
{{BS3, KRW+l, KRWgr, , , } {{BS3, STR, KRWl, KRW+r, , } {{BS3, STR, , HST, , ,
Ramleh Ramla or Ramle ( he, רַמְלָה, ''Ramlā''; ar, الرملة, ''ar-Ramleh'') is a city in the Central District of Israel. Today, Ramle is one of Israel's mixed cities, with both a significant Jewish and Arab populations. The city was f ...
{{BS3, STR, , HST, , ,
Na'an Na'an ( he, נַעַן) is a kibbutz near the city of Rehovot in Israel. Located within the Central District, it falls under the jurisdiction of Gezer Regional Council and borders the villages of Ganei Hadar, Ramot Meir and Sitria. Founded i ...
{{BS3, STR, , HST, , , Wadi Surar {{BS3, STR, , HST, , ,
Artuf Artuf ( ar, عرتوف ) was a Palestinian village in the Jerusalem foothills depopulated in 1948. It was situated west of Jerusalem on a high plateau, surrounded by plains on the south, east, and west. The village was on a secondary road that ...
{{BS3, STR, , HST, , , Deir es Sheikh {{BS3, STR, , HST, , ,
Battir Battir ( ar, بتير) is a Palestinian village in the West Bank, 6.4 km west of Bethlehem, and southwest of Jerusalem. In 2017, the village had a population of 4,696. In 2014, Battir was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage Site as a "wor ...
{{BS3, STR, , KBHFe, ,
Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
{{BS3, HST, , , , ,
Bir Salim Bir Salim ( ar, بئر سالم) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Ramle Subdistrict of Mandatory Palestine. It was depopulated during the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on May 9, 1948, by the Givati Brigade. It was located 4&nb ...
{{BS3, HST, , , , , Rehoboth {{BS3, HST, , , , ,
Yibna Yibna ( ar, يبنى; ''Jabneh'' or ''Jabneel'' in Biblical times; ''Jamnia'' in Roman times; '' Ibelin'' to the Crusaders), or Tel Yavne is an archaeological site and depopulated Palestinian town. The ruins are located immediately southeast of t ...
{{BS5, BOOT, BHF, , , , ,
Ashdod Ashdod ( he, ''ʾašdōḏ''; ar, أسدود or إسدود ''ʾisdūd'' or '' ʾasdūd'' ; Philistine: 𐤀𐤔𐤃𐤃 *''ʾašdūd'') is the sixth-largest city in Israel. Located in the country's Southern District, it lies on the Mediterran ...
{{BS3, HST, , , , , al-Majdal {{BS3, HST, , , , , Deir el Seneid {{BS3, HST, , , , , Gaza {{BS3, HST, , , , ,
Deir al-Balah Deir al-Balah or Deir al Balah ( ar, دير البلح, , Monastery of the Date Palm) is a Palestinian city in the central Gaza Strip and the administrative capital of the Deir el-Balah Governorate. It is located over south of Gaza City. The ci ...
{{BS3, HST, , , , ,
Khan Yunis Khan Yunis ( ar, خان يونس, also spelled Khan Younis or Khan Yunus; translation: ''Caravansary fJonah'') is a city in the southern Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Khan Yunis had a population of 142,6 ...
{{BS3, STR, O1=GRZq, , , , , ''Border, Egypt/Palestine'' {{BS3, BHF, , , ,
Rafah Rafah ( ar, رفح, Rafaḥ) is a Palestinian city in the southern Gaza Strip. It is the district capital of the Rafah Governorate, located south of Gaza City. Rafah's population of 152,950 (2014) is overwhelmingly made up of former Palestinian ...
''Limit of railway north by 1916'' {{BS3, HST, , , , , Gabr Amir {{BS5, BOOT, BHF, , , , ,
El Arish ʻArish or el-ʻArīsh ( ar, العريش ' , ''Hrinokorura'') is the capital and largest city (with 164,830 inhabitants ) of the North Sinai Governorate of Egypt, as well as the largest city on the entire Sinai Peninsula, lying on the Medite ...
{{BS3, HST, , , , ,
Mazar Mazar of Al-Mazar may refer to: *Mazar (mausoleum); often but not always Muslim mausoleum or shrine. Places *Mazar (toponymy), a component of Arabic toponyms literally meaning shrine, grave, tomb, etc. *Mazar, Afghanistan, a village in Balkh Pro ...
{{BS3, HST, , , , , Abu Tilul {{BS3, HST, , , , ,
Bir al-Abed Bir al-Abed ( ar, بئر العبد, biʾr al-ʿabd; arz, بير العبد) is one of the cities of North Sinai in the north east of Egypt. It is the capital of Bir al-Abd Markaz, located on the international coastal road on the shores of Lake ...
{{BS3, HST, , , , , Khirba {{BS3, HST, , , , ,
Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...
{{BS3, HST, , , , , Gilban {{BS5, , eABZgl+l, exSTRq, exABZq+lr, exLSTRq, , ,
El Shatt The El Shatt was a complex of World War II refugee camps in the desert of the Sinai peninsula in Egypt, established in early 1944. The region of Dalmatia (in today's modern Croatia, then Yugoslavia) was evacuated by the Allies, following the Sep ...
''built 1941'' {{BS5, BOOT, KBHFe, , exDSTRa@g, , , Kantara East {{BS5, WASSERq, WASSERq, WASSERq, exhKRZW, WASSERq, ,
Suez Canal The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...
{{BS3, , , exDSTRe@f, , , El Ferdan bridge ''built 1941'' {{BS3, , , exBHF, ,
Ismaïlia Ismailia ( ar, الإسماعيلية ', ) is a city in north-eastern Egypt. Situated on the west bank of the Suez Canal, it is the capital of the Ismailia Governorate. The city has a population of 1,406,699 (or approximately 750,000, includi ...
{{BS3, , , exLSTR, , , Lower Nile &
Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
, Route map with other regional railways , {{Routemap , title = Palestine Railways & HBT railway (1945) , title-bg = #27404E , collapsible = yes , collapse = no , float = , map = {{rint, ferry
Tartus ) , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = , imagesize = , image_caption = Tartus corniche  Port of Tartus • Tartus beach and boulevard  Cathedral of Our Lady of Tortosa • Al-Assad Stadium&n ...
! !KBHFa\\\ {{BSsplit, Syria, Lebanon, line=-, align=center border! !GRENZE\\\ {{rint, ferry
Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...
! !BHF\\\ {{rint, ferry
Chekka Chekka is coastal town located in North Lebanon. It is located north of Râs ach-Chaq’a’ and Herri beaches, or Theoprosopon of classical times and south of the ancient Phoenician port of Enfeh and the city of Tripoli. The origin of the word ...
! !BHF\\\ Antilyas! !HST\\\ {{rint, ferry
Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
! !BHF\\\ {{rint, ferry
Sidon Sidon ( ; he, צִידוֹן, ''Ṣīḏōn'') known locally as Sayda or Saida ( ar, صيدا ''Ṣaydā''), is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate, of which it is the capital, on the Mediterranean coast. ...
! !BHF\\\ Ez Zahrani! !HST\\\ {{rint, ferry Tyre! !BHF\\\
Naqoura Naqoura (, ''Enn Nâqoura, Naqoura, An Nāqūrah'') is a small city in southern Lebanon. Since March 23, 1978, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has been headquartered in Naqoura. Name According to E. H. Palmer (1881), the nam ...
! !HST\\\ {{BSsplit, Lebanon, Palestine, line=-, align=center border! !GRENZE\\\ {{rws, Nahariya, , Az-Zeeb {{small, ''(Nahariya)'' ! !HST\PORTAL3c2\exKBHF3!~PORTALc3\~~{{small, ''({{rws, Karmiel)'' {{rws, Acre! !HST!~exSTRc2\extSTR3+1e!~exlvBHF@F-!~PORTALc1\PORTAL3c4\~~{{small, ''({{rws, Ahihud)'' eABZg+1\exSTRc4\\ {{rws, Kiryat Motzkin! !HST\\\ {{small, ''({{rws, Kiryat Haim)''! !eHST\\\ {{small, ''({{rws, Hutzot HaMifratz)''! !eHST\\\ e3ABZg+1\ex3STRq-\ex3STR+4\ {{small, ''({{rws, HaMifratz Central)''! !eBHF\\exHST\~~{{small, ''({{rws, Yokneam/Kfar Yehoshua)'' {{rws, Haifa East! !HST\\exHST\~~{{small, ''{{BSsplit, (Migdal HaEmek–, Kfar Baruch), Migdal HaEmek–Kfar Baruch railway station'' {{rint, ferry {{rws, Haifa Center HaShmona, , Haifa Centre {{small, ''(Haifa Center HaShmona)'' ! !BHF\\exHST\~~{{small, ''({{rws, Afula)'' {{small, ''({{rws, Haifa Bat Galim)''! !eHST\\exKHSTe\~~{{small, ''({{rws, Beit She'an)'' {{rws, Haifa Hof HaCarmel, , Kafr es Samir {{small, ''(Haifa Hof HaCarmel)'' ! !eBHF!~lHST\\\ {{rws, Atlit, , Athlit {{small, ''(Atlit)'' ! !HST\\\ {{rws, Binyamina, , Benjamina {{small, ''(Binyamina)'' ! !HST\\\ {{small, ''({{rws, Caesarea-Pardes Hanna)''! !eHST\\\ ! !xABZgl\STRq\kSTR2+r\kSTRc3 {{small, ''({{rws, Hadera West)''! !exHST\\\kHST+4~~{{rws, Hadera East, , Hadera {{small, ''(Hadera East)'' {{small, ''({{rws, Netanya)''! !exHST\\\HST~~
Tulkarem Tulkarm, Tulkarem or Tull Keram ( ar, طولكرم, ''Ṭūlkarm'') is a Palestinian city in the West Bank, located in the Tulkarm Governorate of the State of Palestine. The Israeli city of Netanya is to the west, and the Palestinian cities of ...
{{small, ''({{rws, Netanya Sapir)''! !exHST\\\HST~~
Qalqilyah Qalqilya or Qalqiliya ( ar, قلقيلية, Qalqīlyaḧ) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank which serves as the administrative center of the Qalqilya Governorate of the State of Palestine. In the 2007 census, the city had a population of 41, ...
{{small, ''({{rws, Beit Yehoshua)''! !exdHST\exSTR+l\exdSTRq!~exldHST\exSTR+r\dSTR~~{{small, ''({{rws, Kfar Saba – Nordau)'' {{small, ''({{rws, Hod Hasharon Sokolov)''! !exSTR\exdHST\\exdSHI3l\eSHI3g+r {{small, ''({{rws, Ra'anana South)''! !exSTR\exdHST\\d\eHST~~{{small, ''({{rws, Rosh HaAyin North)'' {{small, ''({{rws, Ra'anana West)''! !exSTR\exdHST\\d\HST~~{{rws, Rosh HaAyin South, , Ras al-Ayn {{small, ''(Rosh HaAyin South)'' ! !exSTR!~exSHI1c2\exvSHI1r-\exKRW+l\eKRWgr {{small, ''({{rws, Herzliya)''! !c\exvBHF-KBHFe\cd\exHST\STR~~{{small, ''({{rws, Petah Tikva Segula)'' {{small, ''({{rws, Bnei Brak)''! !exABZg+l\exHSTq\exHSTr\STR~~{{small, ''({{rws, Petah Tikva Kiryat Arye)'' {{small, ''({{rws, Tel Aviv University)''! !exBHF\\\HST~~Kafr Jinnis {{small, ''({{rws, Tel Aviv Savidor Central)''! !exBHF\KBHFa\\STR~~{{rws, Jaffa {{rint, ferry {{small, ''({{rws, Tel Aviv HaShalom)''! !exHST\HST\STRc2\STR3~~{{rws, Tel Aviv South, , Tel Aviv {{small, ''({{rws, Tel Aviv HaHagana)''! !exABZg2!~exlvHST\STR!~STRc2x3\STR3+1\STRc4 {{small, ''({{rws, Holon Junction)''! !exHST!~exSTRc1\ABZg+1x4\STRc4\ {{small, ''({{rws, Holon-Wolfson)''! !exHST\eABZg2\exSTRc3\ {{small, ''({{rws, Bat Yam-Yoseftal)''! !exHST\STR!~exSTRc1\exBHF+4\~~{{small, ''({{rws, Ben Gurion Airport)'' {{small, ''({{rws, Bat Yam-Komemiyut)''! !exHST\STR\exABZgl+l\exHST+r~~{{small, ''({{rws, Paatei Modi'in)'' {{small, ''({{rws, Kfar Chabad)''! !exSTR\eHST\exhSTRae\exSTR~~ ~~ ~~ {{small, ''({{rws, Lod Ganei Aviv)''! !exSTR\eHST\extSTR2a\exKHSTe!~tSTRc3~~{{small, ''({{rws, Modi'in Central)'' {{rws, Lod, , Lydda {{small, ''(Lod)'' ! !exSTR\BHF2\extSTRc1!~STRc3\extKBHF4~~{{small, ''({{rws, Jerusalem–Yitzhak Navon)'' {{small, ''({{rws, Rishon LeZion Moshe Dayan)''! !exHST\STRc1\ABZ4+2f\STRc3 {{small, ''({{rws, Yavne West)''! !exHST\\HST!~STRc1\STR+4~~{{rws, Be'er Ya'akov, , Bir Salim {{small, ''(Be'er Ya'akov)'' {{small, ''({{rws, Rishon LeZion HaRishonim)''! !exSTR\exKHSTaq\eABZgr\HST~~{{rws, Ramla, , Ramleh {{small, ''(Ramla)'' {{rws, Rehovot, , Rehoboth {{small, ''(Rehovot)'' ! !exSTR2\STRc2x3\HST3!~exSTRc2\eABZg3!~lvHST~~
Na'an Na'an ( he, נַעַן) is a kibbutz near the city of Rehovot in Israel. Located within the Central District, it falls under the jurisdiction of Gezer Regional Council and borders the villages of Ganei Hadar, Ramot Meir and Sitria. Founded i ...
{{rws, Yavne East, , Yibna {{small, ''(Yavne East)'' ! !exSTRc1\exSTR+4!~HST+1\exSTR+1!~STRc4\HST!~exSTRc4~~ Wadi Surar {{rint, ferry {{rws, Ashdod Ad Halom, , Isdud {{small, ''(Ashdod Ad Halom)'' ! !\BHF\exSTR\eBHF!~lHST~~{{rws, Beit Shemesh, , Artuf {{small, ''(Beit Shemesh)'' ! !\STR\exSTR\HST~~ Deir es Sheikh {{rws, Ashkelon, , al-Majdal {{small, ''(Ashkelon)'' ! !\eBHF!~lHST\exSTR\HST~~
Battir Battir ( ar, بتير) is a Palestinian village in the West Bank, 6.4 km west of Bethlehem, and southwest of Jerusalem. In 2017, the village had a population of 4,696. In 2014, Battir was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage Site as a "wor ...
! !STRc2\xABZg3\exSTR\eHST~~{{small, ''({{rws, Biblical Zoo, , Jerusalem–Biblical Zoo)'' {{small, ''({{rws, Sderot)''! !STR+1\exHST!~STRc4\exSTR\eBHF~~{{small, ''({{rws, Jerusalem–Malha)'' Deir el Seneid! !HST\exSTR\exSTR\KBHFe ~~{{rws, Jerusalem–Khan, , Jerusalem {{small, ''(Jerusalem–Khan)'' {{small, ''({{rws, Netivot)''! !STR\exHST\exHST\~~{{small, ''({{rws, Mazkeret Batya)'' Gaza! !HST\exSTR\exHST\ ~~{{small, ''({{rws, Kiryat Mal'akhi – Yoav)'' {{small, ''({{rws, Ofakim)''! !STR\exHST\exHST\~~{{small, ''({{rws, Kiryat Gat)''
Deir al-Balah Deir al-Balah or Deir al Balah ( ar, دير البلح, , Monastery of the Date Palm) is a Palestinian city in the central Gaza Strip and the administrative capital of the Deir el-Balah Governorate. It is located over south of Gaza City. The ci ...
! !HST\exSTR\exHST\~~{{small, ''({{rws, Lehavim-Rahat)'' ! !STR\exBS2l\exBS2r\
Khan Yunis Khan Yunis ( ar, خان يونس, also spelled Khan Younis or Khan Yunus; translation: ''Caravansary fJonah'') is a city in the southern Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Khan Yunis had a population of 142,6 ...
! !dHST\d\d\exvBHF-KBHFa\~~{{small, ''({{rws, Be'er Sheva North, , Be'er Sheva North/University)'' ! !dSTR\d\d\exdSTR\exdSTRl\exKHSTeq~~{{small, ''({{rws, Dimona)'' ! !STR\d\exKBHFe\d\~~{{small, ''({{rws, Be'er Sheva Center)'' {{BSsplit, Palestine, Egypt, line=-, align=center border! !GRENZE\\\
Rafah Rafah ( ar, رفح, Rafaḥ) is a Palestinian city in the southern Gaza Strip. It is the district capital of the Rafah Governorate, located south of Gaza City. Rafah's population of 152,950 (2014) is overwhelmingly made up of former Palestinian ...
! !BHF\\\ Gabr Amir! !HST\\\ {{rint, ferry
El Arish ʻArish or el-ʻArīsh ( ar, العريش ' , ''Hrinokorura'') is the capital and largest city (with 164,830 inhabitants ) of the North Sinai Governorate of Egypt, as well as the largest city on the entire Sinai Peninsula, lying on the Medite ...
! !BHF\\\
Mazar Mazar of Al-Mazar may refer to: *Mazar (mausoleum); often but not always Muslim mausoleum or shrine. Places *Mazar (toponymy), a component of Arabic toponyms literally meaning shrine, grave, tomb, etc. *Mazar, Afghanistan, a village in Balkh Pro ...
! !HST\\\ Abu Tilul! !HST\\\
Bir al-Abed Bir al-Abed ( ar, بئر العبد, biʾr al-ʿabd; arz, بير العبد) is one of the cities of North Sinai in the north east of Egypt. It is the capital of Bir al-Abd Markaz, located on the international coastal road on the shores of Lake ...
! !HST\\\ Khirba! !HST\\\
Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...
! !HST\\\ Gilban! !HST\\\ {{rint, ferry Kantara East! !KBHFe\\\ , Route map with current Israel Railways network Palestine Railways (
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
: سكة حديد فلسطين;
Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
: {{lang, he, מסילות ברזל פלשתינה (א"י) “Palestine (Land of Israel) Railways” or {{lang, he, רכבות ארץ-ישראל “Land of Israel Railways” or {{lang, he, הרכבת המנדטורית “Mandate Railways”) was a government-owned railway company that ran all public railways in the
League of Nations mandate A League of Nations mandate was a legal status for certain territories transferred from the control of one country to another following World War I, or the legal instruments that contained the internationally agreed-upon terms for administ ...
territory of
Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
from 1920 until 1948. Its main line linked
El Kantara El Kantara ( ar, القنطرة, al qantara, the bridge) is a town and commune in Biskra Province, Algeria. The 1911 Baedeker travel guide described it as "one of the most important caravan-stations in E. Algeria." The town is well known for the ...
in
Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
with
Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...
. Branches served
Jaffa Jaffa, in Hebrew Yafo ( he, יָפוֹ, ) and in Arabic Yafa ( ar, يَافَا) and also called Japho or Joppa, the southern and oldest part of Tel Aviv-Yafo, is an ancient port city in Israel. Jaffa is known for its association with the b ...
,
Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
,
Acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...
and the
Jezreel Valley The Jezreel Valley (from the he, עמק יזרעאל, translit. ''ʿĒmeq Yīzrəʿēʿl''), or Marj Ibn Amir ( ar, مرج ابن عامر), also known as the Valley of Megiddo, is a large fertile plain and inland valley in the Northern Distr ...
.


Background and predecessors

{{multiple image , align = right , footer = Palestine Railways timetable from October 1934, in English and Hebrew , image1 = Palestine Railways timetable 15 October 1934.jpg , caption1 = , image2 = Palestine Railways timetable 15 October 1934 01.jpg , caption2 = , width1=183 , width2=217


Jaffa–Jerusalem railway

{{Main, Jaffa–Jerusalem railway The Jaffa–Jerusalem railway, funded by ''Chemin de Fer Ottoman de Jaffa à Jérusalem et Prolongements'', was the first railway to be built in Palestine. Construction started on 31 March 1890 and the line opened on 26 September 1892.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=3 It was built to {{RailGauge, 1000mm with many tight curves and a ruling gradient of 2% (1 in 50).{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=3 The eastern part of the line, in the Judean hills between
Dayr Aban Dayr Aban (also spelled Deir Aban; ar, دير آبان) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Jerusalem Subdistrict, located on the lower slope of a high ridge that formed the western slope of a mountain, to the east of Beit Shemesh. It was fo ...
and Jerusalem, is particularly steep and winding. The "J&J"'s first locomotives were a fleet of five
2-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. ...
Mogul tender locomotives from Baldwin in the USA, delivered in 1890 and 1892.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=126 On a number of occasions the Baldwins' six-coupled driving wheels either spread the rails or became derailed on tight curves. As traffic increased the J&J obtained four 0-4-4-0 Mallet articulated locomotives from
Borsig Borsig is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * (1867–1897), German entrepreneur * August Borsig (1804–1854), German businessman * Conrad von Borsig (1873–1945), German mechanical engineer * Ernst Borsig Ernst August Pau ...
in
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, delivered between 1904 and 1914.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=126 The Mallets were intended to deliver greater tractive effort without spreading the rails, but they too suffered a number of derailments. In 1915, during
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, the
Ottoman Army The military of the Ottoman Empire ( tr, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nun silahlı kuvvetleri) was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire. Army The military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the ...
widened the track gauge between
Lydda Lod ( he, לוד, or fully vocalized ; ar, اللد, al-Lidd or ), also known as Lydda ( grc, Λύδδα), is a city southeast of Tel Aviv and northwest of Jerusalem in the Central District of Israel. It is situated between the lower Shephe ...
and Jerusalem to {{RailGauge, 1050mm to allow through running with the Hejaz Railway and removed the track between Lydda and
Jaffa Jaffa, in Hebrew Yafo ( he, יָפוֹ, ) and in Arabic Yafa ( ar, يَافَا) and also called Japho or Joppa, the southern and oldest part of Tel Aviv-Yafo, is an ancient port city in Israel. Jaffa is known for its association with the b ...
for military use elsewhere.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=14 In 1921, the British Government of Palestine seriously considered electrifying the line. Pinhas Rutenberg, the electricity concessionaire of Palestine, had been backed by High Commissioner Samuel in suggesting that the electrification of the line would not only be profitable but also crucial for the successful electrification of the country as a whole. However the Colonial Office backed off, fearing the heavy costs of this project


Jezreel Valley railway

{{Main, Jezreel Valley railway This was a branch of the Hejaz Railway between Haifa and
Daraa Daraa ( ar, دَرْعَا, Darʿā, Levantine Arabic: , also Darʿā, Dara’a, Deraa, Dera'a, Dera, Derʿā and Edrei; means "''fortress''", compare Dura-Europos) is a city in southwestern Syria, located about north of the border with Jordan ...
in southern Syria where it joined the Hejaz main line. Construction began at Haifa in 1902 and was completed at Daraa in 1905.{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, pp=72–73 The Jezreel Valley line, like the Hejaz main line, was built to {{RailGauge, 1050mm. Construction of a branch from
Afula Afula ( he, עפולה Arabic: العفولة) is a city in the Northern District of Israel, often known as the "Capital of the Valley" due to its strategic location in the Jezreel Valley. As of , the city had a population of . Afula's ancient ...
on the Jezreel Valley line to Jerusalem had begun in 1908 and reached
Nablus Nablus ( ; ar, نابلس, Nābulus ; he, שכם, Šəḵem, ISO 259-3: ; Samaritan Hebrew: , romanized: ; el, Νεάπολις, Νeápolis) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately north of Jerusalem, with a populati ...
by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=35


Ottoman military railways

The
Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
needed to supply its forces holding the border of
Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
against British and Empire forces in
Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
. The planned railway from Nablus through hilly country to Jerusalem could not be completed in time, so from 1915 the German railway engineer Heinrich August Meißner oversaw the building of a {{RailGauge, 1050mm, lk=on line westwards from El Mas'udiya to
Tulkarm Tulkarm, Tulkarem or Tull Keram ( ar, طولكرم, ''Ṭūlkarm'') is a Palestinian city in the West Bank, located in the Tulkarm Governorate of the State of Palestine. The Israeli city of Netanya is to the west, and the Palestinian cities of N ...
.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=14 From Tulkarm the terrain became much easier and a line was built northwards to
Hadera Hadera ( he, חֲדֵרָה ) is a city located in the Haifa District of Israel, in the northern Sharon region, approximately 45 kilometers (28 miles) from the major cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa. The city is located along 7 km (5&nbs ...
and southwards to Lydda where it joined the J&J and later became known as the Eastern Railway. It used the widened J&J track (see above) as far as Wadi Surar where it branched southwards towards the Ottoman front line. By October 1915 the line was operational as far south as
Beersheba Beersheba or Beer Sheva, officially Be'er-Sheva ( he, בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע, ''Bəʾēr Ševaʿ'', ; ar, بئر السبع, Biʾr as-Sabʿ, Well of the Oath or Well of the Seven), is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. ...
.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=14 A branch was also built from Et Tine just south of Wadi Surar to Deir Seneid, where it branched again to
Beit Hanoun Beit Hanoun or Beit Hanun ( ar, بيت حانون) is a city on the northeast edge of the Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 32,187 in mid-2006. It is administered by the Governance ...
and Huj near Gaza.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=14 The Ottomans also extended the
railway to Beersheba The Railway to Beersheba ( he, מסילת הרכבת לבאר שבע, ''Mesilat HaRakevet LiV'er Sheva'') is a railroad line that runs from central Israel to the Zin Factories ( Mount Zin) in southern Israel, with a spur to the Be'er Sheva Center R ...
into Sinai as far as Kusseima.


Sinai Military Railway

The
Egyptian Expeditionary Force The Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) was a British Empire military formation, formed on 10 March 1916 under the command of General Archibald Murray from the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force and the Force in Egypt (1914–15), at the beginning of ...
of British and British Empire units was formed in March 1916. It began building the
standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
Sinai Military Railway from
El Kantara El Kantara ( ar, القنطرة, al qantara, the bridge) is a town and commune in Biskra Province, Algeria. The 1911 Baedeker travel guide described it as "one of the most important caravan-stations in E. Algeria." The town is well known for the ...
on the
Suez Canal The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...
across Sinai, reaching
Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...
by May 1916,{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, pp=17–18
El Arish ʻArish or el-ʻArīsh ( ar, العريش ' , ''Hrinokorura'') is the capital and largest city (with 164,830 inhabitants ) of the North Sinai Governorate of Egypt, as well as the largest city on the entire Sinai Peninsula, lying on the Medite ...
in January 1917{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=18 and
Rafah Rafah ( ar, رفح, Rafaḥ) is a Palestinian city in the southern Gaza Strip. It is the district capital of the Rafah Governorate, located south of Gaza City. Rafah's population of 152,950 (2014) is overwhelmingly made up of former Palestinian ...
in March 1917.{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=37 The SMR borrowed rolling stock and 70 locomotives from
Egyptian State Railways Egyptian National Railways (ENR; ar, السكك الحديدية المصرية, Al-Sikak al-Ḥadīdiyyah al-Miṣriyyah) is the national railway of Egypt and managed by the parastatal Egyptian Railway Authority (ERA; ar, الهيئة الق ...
including 20 Robert Stephenson & Co.
0-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. This was the most common wheel arrangemen ...
s, 20 Baldwin 2-6-0s and 15 Baldwin
4-4-0 4-4-0 is a locomotive type with a classification that uses the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement and represents the arrangement: four leading wheels on two axles (usually in a leading bogie), four po ...
s.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=128 The SMR also acquired seven small shunting locomotives: two 0-6-0ST saddle tanks built in 1900 and 1902 that J. Aird & Co.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=128 had been using on a civil engineering project in Egypt (probably the
Assiut Barrage The Assiut Barrage is a dam on the Nile River in the city of Assiut in Upper Egypt (250 miles to the south of Cairo). It was completed in 1903. Background It was designed by the famous British engineer Sir William Willcocks who also concurrentl ...
), four 0-6-0ST's that had been built in 1917 for the Inland Waterways and Docks Department in Britain and one German 0-6-0WT that was part of the cargo of a merchant ship that the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
captured in 1914.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=30 The German locomotive had been built by
Hanomag Hanomag (Hannoversche Maschinenbau AG, ) was a German producer of steam locomotives, tractors, trucks and military vehicles in Hanover. Hanomag first achieved international fame by delivering numerous steam locomotives to Finland, Romania and B ...
in
Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
in 1913{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=129 and all the saddle tanks had been built by
Manning Wardle Manning Wardle was a steam locomotive manufacturer based in Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Precursor companies The city of Leeds was one of the earliest centres of locomotive building; Matthew Murray built the first commercially s ...
in
Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
, England.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=128


Palestine Military Railway

The EEF captured Beersheba in October 1917 and Gaza in November. {{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=21 EEF engineers extended the SMR to Deir Seneid by the end of November 1917 and a branch to Beersheba by May 1918.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=21 From Deir Seneid, EEF engineers worked northwards converting the Ottoman tracks to standard gauge, reaching Lydda by February 1918,{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=23 converting the branch to Jerusalem by June{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=25 and continuing as far as Tulkarm on the Eastern Railway. From there they built the standard gauge line on a new route northwest to the coast and then northwards, reaching Haifa by the end of 1918.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=24 As the EEF advanced into Palestine it formed a new organisation, the Palestine Military Railway, to operate the various railways of various gauges that came under its control.
Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...
units restored Palestine's railways to working condition.{{sfn, Sherman, 2001, p=43 The PMR laid a number of temporary {{RailGauge, 600mm, lk=on
narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...
lines, including one between Lydda and Jaffa{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=37 on the J&J trackbed from which the Ottoman army had removed the {{RailGauge, 1000mm, allk=on track in 1915. The PMR borrowed several {{RailGauge, 3ft6in, lk=on locomotives to work the {{RailGauge, 1050mm
narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...
tracks, which were a very tight fit.


Operations

In April 1920 the
San Remo conference The San Remo conference was an international meeting of the post-World War I Allied Supreme Council as an outgrowth of the Paris Peace Conference, held at Villa Devachan in Sanremo, Italy, from 19 to 26 April 1920. The San Remo Resolution pas ...
mandated the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
to administer Palestine: a decision endorsed by a
League of Nations mandate A League of Nations mandate was a legal status for certain territories transferred from the control of one country to another following World War I, or the legal instruments that contained the internationally agreed-upon terms for administ ...
in 1922. In October 1920 railway administration was duly transferred from the military PMR to a new company, Palestine Railways (PR), owned by the British Mandate government.{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=37{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=32 Throughout the military operations of the Ottoman and British Empires the Jaffa – Jerusalem railway had remained the property of the French ''Société du Chemin de Fer Ottoman de Jaffa à Jérusalem et Prolongements''. The French sought £1.5 million from the British for the J&J but after arbitration accepted £565,000 paid in instalments.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=32 The Lydda – Jaffa section was converted from 600mm gauge to standard gauge and reopened in September 1920.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=25 As PR's north-south main line had laid speedily for military purposes and its Jaffa – Jerusalem and Jezreel Valley lines were steeply graded, its trains were not very fast. Its highest speed limit was {{convert, 50, mph and even its best trains achieved less than {{convert, 30, mph overall between termini.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=36 From 1920 PR developed a daily Haifa – El Kantara mixed traffic service.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=32
Wagons-Lits Newrest Wagons-Lits, formerly (lit. ''International Sleeping-Car Company''), also CIWL, Compagnie des Wagons-Lits, or just Wagons-Lits, is a division of particularly known for its on-train catering and sleeping car services, as well as being ...
provided restaurant and sleeping cars three days per week until 1923, when this luxury service was increased to daily.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=32 Palestine lacked a deep-water seaport until 1933 when one was built at Haifa. Until then, cargo that Palestinian ports could not handle would pass through
Port Said Port Said ( ar, بورسعيد, Būrsaʿīd, ; grc, Πηλούσιον, Pēlousion) is a city that lies in northeast Egypt extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Suez Canal. With an approximate population of 6 ...
in Egypt.Historical plaque at
Ashdod Ashdod ( he, ''ʾašdōḏ''; ar, أسدود or إسدود ''ʾisdūd'' or '' ʾasdūd'' ; Philistine: 𐤀𐤔𐤃𐤃 *''ʾašdūd'') is the sixth-largest city in Israel. Located in the country's Southern District, it lies on the Mediterran ...
railway station, cited in Rothschild, ''HaRakevet'' 18, 1992, page 11
Egyptian State Railways carried the freight between Port Said and El Kantara and PR carried it between El Kantara East and Palestine. No bridge was built across the Suez Canal until 1941, so freight was ferried across the canal between the ESR and PR stations on opposite banks at El Kantara. This would have included deliveries of locomotives and rolling stock to PR. PR passenger traffic declined significantly in the 1920s and '30s. The competition from increasing numbers of private cars reduced first-class and then second-class passenger traffic, such that by 1934, 95% of remaining passengers were third-class.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=45 The onset of the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
in 1929 badly affected tourist traffic, from which the PR never recovered.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=45


The Pole Committee

As PR's finances deteriorated, in 1934 the United Kingdom government appointed a committee of investigation led by Sir
Felix Pole Sir Felix John Clewett Pole (1 February 1877 – 15 January 1956) was a British railway manager and industrialist. He was general manager of the Great Western Railway from 1921 to 1929, before becoming executive chairman of Associated Electrical ...
, former chairman of Britain's
Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...
.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=45 Pole also had the specific task of advising to improve stations and the railway route to improve links between Jaffa, Tel-Aviv and Haifa.Hansard, 17 July 1935 The other members of Pole's committee were C.M. Jenkin-Jones of Britain's
London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...
and the accountant Sir Laurence Halsey, who was a partner in
Price Waterhouse PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting ...
. Jenkin-Jones' specific task was to advise how to develop traffic facilities, traffic organisation and what rates to charge. Halsey was to advise on the accounting system and the establishment of an adequate renewals fund. In the 1934–35 financial year Palestine Railways suffered a net deficit of £87,940. Later in 1935 Pole's committee published its report,{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=45 which really was three related reports from the three committee members. Each member's recommendations called for considerable investment. Pole criticised the way the railway was operated around the key central junction at Lydda.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=45 It identified serious under-investment, reporting that Jaffa and Tel Aviv stations were ''"inadequate and unsuitable"'' and ''"traffic congestion asconsiderable"'' around Lydda.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=45 Passengers between Haifa and Tel Aviv or Jaffa had to change at Lydda, which was both inadequate for passengers and a source of congestion at Lydda station. Pole therefore recommended building two new link lines from Tel Aviv to by-pass Lydda: a northerly one to
Magdiel Magdiel ( he, מגדיאל) is one of the four original communities of Jewish agriculture, agriculturalists that combined in 1964 to form Hod Hasharon, Israel. It was founded in 1924 and according to a 1931 census of Palestine, census conducted in ...
on the Haifa main line to create a direct Haifa – Tel Aviv – Jaffa route{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=45 and a southerly one through
Rishon LeZion Rishon LeZion ( he, רִאשׁוֹן לְצִיּוֹן , ''lit.'' First to Zion, Arabic: راشون لتسيون) is a city in Israel, located along the central Israeli coastal plain south of Tel Aviv. It is part of the Gush Dan metropolitan ar ...
and over the El Kantara main line at Rehoboth to a junction with the Jerusalem line at
Niana In Mandaeism, a ʿniana ( myz, ࡏࡍࡉࡀࡍࡀ; plural form: ''ʿniania'' ) prayer is recited during rituals such as the masiqta and priest initiation ceremonies. There is a total of 26 ʿniana prayers. They form part of the Qolasta. Etymology ...
.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=46 In July 1935 in the
UK House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 mem ...
the
Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...
MP
Barnett Janner Barnett Janner, Baron Janner (20 June 1892 – 4 May 1982) was a British politician who was elected as a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) and later as a Labour MP. Early life Janner was born to a Litvak family in Luokė in the Kovno Gove ...
asked
Malcolm MacDonald Malcolm Ian Macdonald (born 7 January 1950) is an English former professional footballer, manager and media figure. Nicknamed 'Supermac', Macdonald was a quick, powerfully built prolific goalscorer. He played for Fulham, Luton Town, Newcastle U ...
,
Secretary of State for the Colonies The secretary of state for the colonies or colonial secretary was the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, British Cabinet government minister, minister in charge of managing the United Kingdom's various British Empire, colonial dependencies. Histor ...
:
''"whether he is aware of the discontent with the present services provided by the Palestine railways; and whether he can now give an assurance that, as a consequence of the recent official inquiry into this matter, remedial action will be set on foot during the current year?"''
MacDonald replied:
''"Until a few years ago the financial position of Palestine restricted expenditure on the maintenance and improvement of the railways, but additional revenue is now available and considerable sums have already been spent and are about to be spent for this purpose. Any further action which may be found to be necessary arising out of recent expert enquiries will be taken as soon as possible."''
Despite MacDonald's promise PR never received the necessary capital and neither of Pole's proposed lines was ever built by Palestine Railways. The only extension that Pole recommended and PR did build was a short extension for freight from Jaffa station to the harbour.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=46 Jaffa harbour was so constrained by hazardous rocks that only small vessels dared to enter it; ocean-going cargo ships would lie off-shore and transfer their freight to or from the docks by
lighters A lighter is a portable device which creates a flame, and can be used to ignite a variety of items, such as cigarettes, gas lighter, fireworks, candles or campfires. It consists of a metal or plastic container filled with a flammable liquid or ...
. Pole's recommendation to rebuild the harbour was not implemented, so as a result PR's new freight line received little use.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=46


Locomotives


Palestine Military Railway locomotives

For standard gauge use overseas the British Government requisitioned many
London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom. In 1923, it became a constituent of the Lo ...
"Coal Engine"
0-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. This was the most common wheel arrangemen ...
s and 50
London and South Western Railway The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exeter ...
395 Class 0-6-0s. The British Government sent 42 LNWR and 36 LSWR locomotives to the PMR{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=127 In 1918 the PMR ordered 50 new locomotives. British factories were fully occupied so the order was placed with Baldwin in the USA.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=28 They were
4-6-0 A 4-6-0 steam locomotive, under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, has four leading wheels on two axles in a leading bogie and six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles with the abse ...
s of a simple wartime design, widely used elsewhere including on railways in Belgium.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=28 The first ten were delivered to Palestine in April 1919.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=29 They had {{convert, 5, ft, 2, in, mm, abbr=on driving wheels suitable for mixed traffic use.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=130 The PMR suffered at least one serious accident. In about 1918 the older of the Manning Wardle saddle tanks that the PMR had acquired from J. Aird & Co. was shunting at Jerusalem when the weight of its train became too much for it to hold on the gradient.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=30 The train ran away downhill towards Bittir and collided with an LSWR 395 Class that was climbing towards Jerusalem.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=30 The resulting collision ''"practically demolished"'' the saddle tank.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=30


Palestine Railways locomotives

The LNWR 0-6-0s were old, worn out and performed very badly in Palestine, so PR retired all of them for scrap by 1922.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=28 The LSWR 0-6-0s performed better,{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=127 so PR kept most of them in service until 1928{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=28 and retained the last nine as shunting locomotives until 1936.{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=41


M class

The four Manning Wardle saddle tanks from the Inland Waterways and Docks Department were identical so PR designated them class M.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=30 These were satisfactory as shunting locomotives and PR kept them in service for many years.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=30 The J. Aird & Co. Manning Wardles were dissimilar and the PMR had already lost the older one in 1918 in a collision on the Jerusalem branch with an LSWR 395 class (see above).{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=30 PR disposed of the Hanomag well tank and the former Aird 1902 Manning Wardle for scrap in 1928.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=130


K class

The Baldwin 4-6-0 locomotives were successful on most of Palestine's standard gauge network but could not haul adequate loads on the steep gradients from Jaffa ''via'' Lydda to Jerusalem. In 1922 PR obtained six engines from
Kitson and Company Kitson and Company was a locomotive manufacturer based in Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Early history The company was started in 1835 by James Kitson (businessman), James Kitson at the Airedale Foundry, off Pearson Street, Hunslet, ...
in
Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
,
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, specifically designed to be powerful enough for the Jerusalem service. They were 2-8-4T
tank locomotive A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of a more traditional tender. Most tank engines also have bunkers (or fuel tanks) to hold fuel; in a tender-tank locom ...
s designated class K. They had {{convert, 4, ft, 0, in, mm, abbr=on driving wheels,{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=130 a diameter suitable for low-speed freight work and also for mountain gradients. The track gauge on the tight curves on the Jerusalem branch was widened from {{RailGauge, 1435mm to as much as {{convert, 4, ft, 9.75, in, mm, 0, abbr=on{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=48 but unfortunately even with this adjustment the heavy eight-coupled class K was unsuitable and suffered a number of derailments.


H, H2 and H3 classes

{{main, Palestine Railways H class PR designated the Baldwin 4-6-0s class H. In 1926 six were shipped to
Armstrong Whitworth Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd was a major British manufacturing company of the early years of the 20th century. With headquarters in Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Armstrong Whitworth built armaments, ships, locomotives, automobiles and a ...
and Company in
Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...
, England who rebuilt them as
4-6-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and two trailing wheels on one axle. The locomotiv ...
T tank locomotives, designated class H2.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=49 In 1933 PR opened its own railway workshops in Haifa.{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=38 In 1937, with the help of some parts supplied by
Nasmyth, Wilson and Company Nasmyth, Gaskell and Company, originally called The Bridgewater Foundry, specialised in the production of Machine tool, heavy machine tools and locomotives. It was located in Patricroft, in Salford, Greater Manchester, Salford England, close to ...
in
Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...
, England, the Qishon works converted five class H 4-6-0s to
4-6-4 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels and four trailing wheels. In France where the type was first used, it is known as t ...
T tank locomotives,{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, pp=50–52{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=50 designated class H3.


Sentinels

In 1928 PR bought one vertical-boilered
0-4-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents one of the simplest possible types, that with two axles and four coupled wheels, all of which are driven. The wheels on the earliest four-coupled locomotives were ...
T shunting locomotive{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=55 and two vertical-boilered steam-powered
railcar A railcar (not to be confused with a railway car) is a self-propelled railway vehicle designed to transport passengers. The term "railcar" is usually used in reference to a train consisting of a single coach (carriage, car), with a drive ...
s for local services from Sentinel-Cammell in
Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...
, England.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=49 Each railcar unit had two coach bodies articulated over three bogies. The shunter was capable of only light duties and by the end of the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
PR had stored it out of use.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=55 PR found the railcar format inflexible, as if passenger numbers exceeded the capacity of a railcar it was not practical to couple up an extra coach.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, pp=49–50 In 1945 PR removed the Sentinel engines and converted the railcars to ordinary coaching stock.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=50


N class

After 1928 PR retained a few 395 class 0-6-0s for shunting, but they were approaching 50 years old so in 1934 PR obtained three purpose-built 0-6-0T shunting locomotives from Nasmyth, Wilson to start replacing them.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=55 These were designated class N and PR took delivery of seven more in the period 1935–38.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=55


P class

{{main, Palestine Railways P class H class 4-6-0s hauled the Haifa – El Kantara service until 1935, when the
North British Locomotive Company The North British Locomotive Company (NBL, NB Loco or North British) was created in 1903 through the merger of three Glasgow locomotive manufacturing companies; Sharp, Stewart and Company (Atlas Works), Neilson, Reid and Company (Hyde Park Wor ...
in
Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
,
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
supplied six more powerful 4-6-0s that PR designated class P.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=55 These had a tractive effort of {{convert, 28470, lbf, kN, 1, abbr=on: 16% more than the {{convert, 24479, lbf, kN, 1, abbr=on of classes H, H2 and H3.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=130 Class P also had {{convert, 5, ft, 6+3/4, in, mm, 0, abbr=on driving wheels:{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=130 a mixed-traffic diameter by British standards but larger than those of the H series and therefore more suitable for higher speed traffic.


Reliability

PR suffered frequent locomotive failures. In 1934 its locomotives averaged {{convert, 7860, mi between failures, whereas the figure for locomotives in Great Britain for the same year was {{convert, 88229, mi.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=56 Staff error caused 17% of failures but far more were caused by poor water, which PR's General Manager reported was ''"the most pressing of all the railway problems"''.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=56 PR sought to alleviate this by building
water softening Water softening is the removal of calcium, magnesium, and certain other metal cations in hard water. The resulting soft water requires less soap for the same cleaning effort, as soap is not wasted bonding with calcium ions. Soft water also exten ...
plants at the main watering points on its network, frequently chemically testing the water and eventually fitting all locomotives with blowing down apparatus with which the driver could purge sludge from the boiler.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=57


World War II locomotives


Steam

PR had fuelled its locomotives with Welsh coal{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=41 but in June 1940 Italy declared war on the Allies and France surrendered to Germany and Italy, leaving the Mediterranean extremely dangerous for British merchant shipping. Early in 1942 PR belatedly began to convert its locomotives to burn oil,{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=77 but it did not complete the conversion programme until 1943.{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=41 In 1941 Britain started to supply two types of
2-8-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles, and no trailing wheels. ...
Consolidation freight locomotive to its Middle East Command. One was the
ROD 2-8-0 The Railway Operating Division (ROD) ROD 2-8-0 is a type of 2-8-0 steam locomotive which was the standard heavy freight locomotive operated in Europe by the ROD during the First World War. ROD need for a standard locomotive During the First Wor ...
class that had been designed in 1911 as the
Great Central Railway The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company was grouped into the ...
Class 8K and that the UK's War Department (WD) had adopted as a standard design to be mass-produced for military traffic in the First World War. The other was the
London, Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally u ...
Stanier 8F that had been designed in 1935 and that the WD now adopted as a standard design to be mass-produced for military use in the Second World War. As Allied forces concentrated on defending Egypt and the Suez Canal from Italian and German attack the first shipments of 2-8-0s were delivered to Egypt,{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=54 but in March 1942 both types started to arrive in Palestine and by June 1942 24 ROD locomotives were working on PR and the Haifa – Beirut – Tripoli (HBT) line.{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=52 In 1944-45 the ROD locomotives were transferred out of Palestine and replaced by LMS locomotives{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=52 that had been in service on the
Trans-Iranian Railway The Trans-Iranian Railway ( fa, راه‌آهن سراسری ایران) was a major railway building project started in Pahlavi Iran in 1927 and completed in 1938, under the direction of the then-Iranian monarch Reza Shah. It was entirely built ...
.{{sfn, Tourret, 1976, p=31 Other LMS locomotives were overhauled in Palestine in 1944 before being deployed either elsewhere in the Middle East or to the part of Italy now under Allied control.{{sfn, Tourret, 1976, p=30 In the second half of 1942 the USA started to supply locomotives to the British Middle East Command. By December 1942, 27{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=52
USATC S200 Class The United States Army Transportation Corps (USATC) S200 Class is a class of 2-8-2 steam locomotive. They were introduced in 1941 and lent-leased to the United Kingdom for use in the Middle East during World War II. Service Middle East At le ...
2-8-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and two trailing wheel ...
Mikados were working the PR and HBT main lines and two{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=52
USATC S100 Class The United States Army Transportation Corps (USATC) S100 Class is a 0-6-0 steam locomotive that was designed for switching (shunting) duties in Europe and North Africa during World War II. After the war, they were used on railways in Austria, ...
0-6-0T
switcher A switcher, shunter, yard pilot, switch engine, yard goat, or shifter is a small railroad locomotive used for manoeuvring railroad cars inside a rail yard in a process known as ''switching'' (US) or ''shunting'' (UK). Switchers are not inten ...
s were supplementing PR's shunting fleet.


Diesel

By June 1943 12
Whitcomb Whitcombe or Whitcomb may refer to: People * Whitcombe (surname) * George Faunce Whitcomb *Ian Whitcomb (1941-2020) Places ;United Kingdom * Whitcombe, Dorset, England * Whitcombe, Somerset, England ;United States * Whitcomb, Indiana * Whitcomb, ...
65-DE-14{{sfn, Tourret, 1976, p=45 650 HP diesel-electric locomotives from the USA were working on the HBT and by 12 December more were working on the PR.{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=52 The latter were an effective replacement for PR's Baldwins on the steeply-graded Jerusalem line{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=72 but within a few months all had been transferred to double the diesel fleet on the HBT.{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=52 Whitcomb diesels were the HBT's principal motive power until the middle of 1944{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=72 when they were replaced with ROD 2-8-0s{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=52 and transferred to Italy.{{sfn, Tourret, 1976, p=46


1936–39 Arab Revolt

In 1936–39 Palestinian Arabs opposed to Jewish mass immigration revolted against British rule. Railways were a particular target for sabotage.{{sfn, Sherman, 2001, p=93 The British built
blockhouse A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It is usually an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive stro ...
s to protect bridges and regular military patrols of railway lines.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=64 Patrols were initially on foot, then in armoured freight vans propelled by locomotives with armoured cabs, and finally with dozens of rail-mounted
armoured cars Armored (or armoured) car or vehicle may refer to: Wheeled armored vehicles * Armoured fighting vehicle, any armed combat vehicle protected by armor ** Armored car (military), a military wheeled armored vehicle * Armored car (valuables), an arm ...
built at Qishon works.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, pp=64–65 After one was blown up by a mine, killing a soldier, the front of each armoured car was fitted with a long bar propelling a
pony truck A Bissell or Bissel truck (also Bissel bogie or Pony truck) is a single-axle bogie which pivots towards the centre of a steam locomotive to enable it to negotiate curves more easily. Invented in 1857 by and usually then known as a ''pony truck' ...
intended to detonate any mine safely without injuring any of the armoured car's occupants.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=65 British soldiers made Arab hostages ride on the pony truck so that any mine would be likely to kill them.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=65Loxton, John, typescript memoirs held in the Private Papers Collection of the Middle East Centre,
St Antony's College, Oxford St Antony's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1950 as the result of the gift of French merchant Sir Antonin Besse of Aden, St Antony's specialises in international relations, economic ...
; cited in Sherman 2001, p. 119
Security measures failed to stop attacks on the railway. One attack damaged a Sentinel railcar.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=65 In October 1937 a more serious attack damaged a passenger train and prompted a further decline in passenger numbers.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=65 In 1938 sabotage derailed 44 trains, damaged 33 rail-mounted armoured cars, destroyed 27 stations and other buildings, damaged 21 bridges and
culvert A culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe, reinforced concrete or other material. In the United Kingdom ...
s and destroyed telephone and signalling equipment and water supplies.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=65 A member of the Survey of Palestine recalled that ''"nearly all the stations on the railway had been burnt"''. For more than one period night running became so dangerous that it was suspended.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, pp=65–66 In September 1938 first the Jerusalem line and then El Kantara line were closed by extensive sabotage.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, pp=65–66 After the latter was reopened in October, Haifa – El Kantara trains were run only three days per week compared with the previous daily service.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=66 The worst year was 1938, in which 13 railway workers were killed and 123 injured.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=66


World War II extensions and operations

During the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
traffic on PR increased dramatically from 1940 to 1945.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=67 The PR main line was a supply route for the North African Campaign that lasted from the Italian attack on Egypt in 1940 until the German surrender in
Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...
in May 1943. In April – May 1941 the
Italian air force , colours = , colours_label = , march = (Ordinance March of the Air Force) by Alberto Di Miniello , mascot = , anniversaries = 28 March ...
and German ''
Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...
'' used
Vichy French Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its terr ...
air bases in the mandated territories of Syria and Lebanon as staging posts to support
Rashid Ali Rashid Ali al-Gaylaniin Arab standard pronunciation Rashid Aali al-Kaylani; also transliterated as Sayyid Rashid Aali al-Gillani, Sayyid Rashid Ali al-Gailani or sometimes Sayyad Rashid Ali el Keilany (" Sayyad" serves to address higher standing ...
's ''coup d'état'' against Iraq's pro-British government. British and Empire forces landed in southern Iraq and overthrew the coup in the brief
Anglo-Iraqi War The Anglo-Iraqi War was a British-led Allied military campaign during the Second World War against the Kingdom of Iraq under Rashid Gaylani, who had seized power in the 1941 Iraqi coup d'état, with assistance from Germany and Italy. The c ...
of May 1941. Then in June and July 1941 PR served as a supply route for the British Empire invasion of Vichy Syria and Lebanon. PR suffered relatively few enemy air attacks.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=78 In 1941 Haifa suffered several air raids, one of which left an unexploded bomb within a few yards of the line.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=78 The last significant air attack on the railway was late in 1942, damaging the rail link to Haifa port.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=78 The attacks killed one railway worker and wounded ten more.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=78


Suez canal area

In June 1941 Australian Royal Engineers started building a line alongside the
Suez Canal The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...
southwards from PR's terminus at El Kantara.{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=47 In July 1941 they connected the new line with Egyptian State Railways (ESR) by a swing bridge at El Ferdan across the canal.{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=47 In August 1941 PR started operating a through service between Haifa and
Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
.{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=47 Construction of the line beside the canal continued until July 1942 when it reached
El Shatt The El Shatt was a complex of World War II refugee camps in the desert of the Sinai peninsula in Egypt, established in early 1944. The region of Dalmatia (in today's modern Croatia, then Yugoslavia) was evacuated by the Allies, following the Sep ...
.{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=47 ESR then took over operation of the completed route.{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=47


Haifa – Beirut – Tripoli (HBT) line

South African Army engineers built the first section of a new Haifa –
Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...
(HBT) railway, branching off the 1050 mm gauge Haifa – Acre line and running along the rocky coast and through two tunnels to Beirut.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=67 For its construction the HBT initially used 1050 mm gauge track throughout the Haifa – Beirut section for through running of traffic carrying railway construction materials.{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=48 The South Africans were transferred to other duties and the Haifa – Beirut section was completed by the New Zealand Railway Group.{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=48 The New Zealand Railway Group also operated the 1050 mm gauge
Jezreel Valley railway The Jezreel Valley railway, or the Valley Train ( he, רַכֶּבֶת הָעֵמֶק, ''Rakevet HaEmek'' ; ar, خط سكة حديد حيفا – درعا, khaṭṭ sikkat ḥadīd Ḥayfa–Dar‘a) was a railroad that existed in Ottoman and ...
between Haifa and Daraa on the Syrian border,{{sfn, Judd, 2004, p=? the Daraa – Damascus section of the 1050 mm gauge Hejaz Railway main line{{sfn, Judd, 2004, p=? and {{convert, 60, mi of branch lines including the 1050 mm line between
Afula Afula ( he, עפולה Arabic: العفولة) is a city in the Northern District of Israel, often known as the "Capital of the Valley" due to its strategic location in the Jezreel Valley. As of , the city had a population of . Afula's ancient ...
on the Jezreel Valley railway,
Nablus Nablus ( ; ar, نابلس, Nābulus ; he, שכם, Šəḵem, ISO 259-3: ; Samaritan Hebrew: , romanized: ; el, Νεάπολις, Νeápolis) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately north of Jerusalem, with a populati ...
, and Tulkarm on the main line between Haifa and Lydda.{{sfn, Judd, 2004, p=? The Afula – Mas'udiya service ended in 1932, and the Tulkarm – Mas'udiya – Nablus service in 1938, except for a 5 km dual gauge section between Tulkarm and the ballast quarries at Nur Shams.{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=38 By August 1942, the Haifa – Beirut section was complete, the track was converted to standard gauge,{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=48 and the stretch between Haifa and Acre, which was shared with the Jezreel Valley railway, to
dual gauge In railway engineering, "gauge" is the transverse distance between the inner surfaces of the heads of two rails, which for the vast majority of railway lines is the number of rails in place. However, it is sometimes necessary for track to c ...
. The new railway line started carrying through military traffic between Egypt, Palestine and Lebanon.{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=48 By then Australian Royal Engineers were already building the Beirut – Tripoli section, which they completed in December 1942.{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=48 PR operated the HBT between Haifa and
Az-Zeeb Achziv ( he, אַכְזִיב} ''ʾAḵzīḇ''; ar, الزيب, ''Az-Zīb'') is an ancient site on the Mediterranean coast of northern Israel, between the border with Lebanon and the city of Acre. It is located north of Acre on the coast of ...
{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=48 just south of the Lebanese border and the British military
Middle East Command Middle East Command, later Middle East Land Forces, was a British Army Command established prior to the Second World War in Egypt. Its primary role was to command British land forces and co-ordinate with the relevant naval and air commands to ...
operated the HBT between Az-Zeeb and Tripoli.


Traffic growth

Completion of the Ferdan bridge and HBT hugely enhanced PR's strategic role. PR's annual freight traffic grew from 858,995 tons in 1940-41 to 2,194,848 tons in 1943-44.{{sfn, Lockman, 1996, p=272 The huge growth in the number of trains increased the potential for accidents. There were three head-on collisions and in 1942 six H class 4-6-0s were written off in accidents. The war effort both increased wear on equipment and reduced resources for maintenance. In November 1944 a downpour derailed an El Kantara – Haifa train, killing seven people and injuring 40.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=78


1945–1948

Most ROD and S200 locomotives were withdrawn from Palestine before the end of the Second World War and the remaining few soon followed,{{sfn, Hughes, 1981, p=52 but PR took 24 LMS 8F's{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=69 and the two S100s{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=71 into its locomotive fleet. In 1945
Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...
paramilitary organisations formed an alliance, the
Jewish Resistance Movement The Jewish Resistance Movement ( he, תנועת המרי העברי, ''Tnu'at HaMeri HaIvri'', literally ''Hebrew Rebellion Movement''), also called the United Resistance Movement (URM), was an alliance of the Zionist paramilitary organizations H ...
, which launched a war against British administration in which members of the
Palmach The Palmach (Hebrew: , acronym for , ''Plugot Maḥatz'', "Strike Companies") was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv (Jewish community) during the period of the British Mandate for Palestine. The Palmach ...
,
Irgun Irgun • Etzel , image = Irgun.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = Irgun emblem. The map shows both Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan, which the Irgun claimed in its entirety for a future Jewish state. The acronym "Etzel" i ...
and Lehi organisations sabotaged the PR network at 153 places throughout Palestine. Terrorists robbed a train delivering wages to railway staff.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=43 In 1946 a terrorist bomb demolished the main part of the Haifa East station building.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, loc=plate 46 In the
Night of the Bridges The Night of the Bridges (formally Operation Markolet) was a Haganah venture on the night of 16 to 17 June 1946 in the British Mandate of Palestine, as part of the Jewish insurgency in Palestine (1944–7). Its aim was to destroy eleven bridges l ...
of 16–17 June that year,
Palmach The Palmach (Hebrew: , acronym for , ''Plugot Maḥatz'', "Strike Companies") was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv (Jewish community) during the period of the British Mandate for Palestine. The Palmach ...
saboteurs destroyed 11 road and rail links with neighbouring countries including PR's {{Track gauge, 1435mm, allk=on links with Egypt and Lebanon and its {{Track gauge, 1050mm, lk=on gauge link with Syria.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=83 On 22 April 1947, terrorists blew up an El Kantara – Haifa train near
Rehovot Rehovot ( he, רְחוֹבוֹת ''Rəḥōvōt'', ar, رحوڤوت ''Reḥūfūt'') is a city in the Central District of Israel, about south of Tel Aviv. In it had a population of . Etymology Israel Belkind, founder of the Bilu movement, ...
, killing five British soldiers and a number of civilians.{{sfn, Sherman, 2001, p=205 As security deteriorated, theft from the railway increased.{{sfn, Sherman, 2001, p=213 British security forces failed to intervene to protect the railway and in some cases took part in looting its assets.Letter from Arthur Kirby to Sir
Henry Gurney Sir Henry Lovell Goldsworthy Gurney (27 June 1898 – 6 October 1951) was a British colonial administrator who served in various posts throughout the British Empire. Gurney was killed by communist insurgents during the Malayan Emergency, whi ...
, 7 April 1948, quoted in Sherman 2001, p. 228
In January 1948 the General Manager, Arthur Kirby, vainly pleaded with Sir
Henry Gurney Sir Henry Lovell Goldsworthy Gurney (27 June 1898 – 6 October 1951) was a British colonial administrator who served in various posts throughout the British Empire. Gurney was killed by communist insurgents during the Malayan Emergency, whi ...
, Chief Secretary of the Mandate Government, for adequate armed protection for the railway and its 6,000 staff, otherwise they would cease to do their duty and ''"I cannot guarantee to keep the railways operating"''. In February Kirby noted:
''...locomotives wrecked by mines have been repaired time and time again so that most of them, though blown up several times, are still working after 28 years of service – and working efficiently... We have no fewer than 50 personnel of the train crews absent from duty, some in hospital, suffering from the effects of having been interfered with while trying to perform their duty. Men have been killed while performing their duties. Running trains are subject to attack and the principal marshalling depot is constantly being fired over by snipers... utso long as the present Railway Management exists, it will endeavour to maintain the railways and ports as fully as possible without fear or favour and irrespective of politics.''
On 31 March 1948 another train was blown up by a terrorist mine near
Binyamina Binyamina-Giv'at Ada ( he, בִּנְיָמִינָה-גִּבְעַת עָדָה) is a town in the Haifa District of Israel. It is the result of the 2003 merger between the two local councils of Binyamina and Giv'at Ada. In its population was . ...
south of Haifa, killing 40 civilians and wounding 60. By April 1948 Kirby described snipers' and saboteurs' killing of railway staff as ''"incessant"''. In 1948 terrorists attacked PR's head office, Khoury House in Haifa, and the resulting fire badly damaged the accounts department.{{sfn, Sherman, 2001, p=232 PR's telephone and telegraph network was destroyed{{sfn, Sherman, 2001, p=228 and Jewish terrorists stole Kirby's car at gunpoint.{{sfn, Sherman, 2001, p=235 Kirby instructed his staff:
''The intention of the Management is that the Railways will be kept in operation and handed over on 15th May as a going concern. The severe loss of Khoury House, Headquarters, and the secession of Arab staff in Haifa will not interfere with this intention... All staff reporting for duty will be allocated to the best advantage, irrespective of the Branch in which they have been hitherto employed...''
Privately Kirby wrote to Gurney:
''I have been expected to carry on the railways and ports under almost impossible conditions; I have taken upon myself risks and responsibilities that have seldom, if ever befallen the General Manager of a Colonial Railway; I have achieved more than could have been hoped for...''.Letter from Arthur Kirby to Sir Henry Gurney, 24 April 1948, quoted in Sherman 2001, p. 233


Aftermath

By the time the British withdrew from the Mandate in May 1948, railway operations had effectively ceased.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=81 For the remainder of 1948 railway services in the new State of Israel were confined to the area around Haifa, running southwards on the main line as far as
Hadera Hadera ( he, חֲדֵרָה ) is a city located in the Haifa District of Israel, in the northern Sharon region, approximately 45 kilometers (28 miles) from the major cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa. The city is located along 7 km (5&nbs ...
and northwards to
Kiryat Motzkin Kiryat Motzkin ( he, קִרְיַת מוֹצְקִין) is a city in the Haifa District of Israel, north of the city of Haifa. In it had a population of . The city is named after Leo Motzkin (1867-1933), one of the organizers of the First Zionis ...
and later
Nahariya Nahariya ( he, נַהֲרִיָּה, ar, نهاريا) is the northernmost coastal city in Israel. In it had a population of . Etymology Nahariya takes its name from the stream of Ga'aton (river is ''nahar'' in Hebrew), which bisects it. Hist ...
.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=84 In the centre of the country, the populations of
Ramla Ramla or Ramle ( he, רַמְלָה, ''Ramlā''; ar, الرملة, ''ar-Ramleh'') is a city in the Central District of Israel. Today, Ramle is one of Israel's mixed cities, with both a significant Jewish and Arab populations. The city was f ...
on the Jaffa – Jerusalem line and Lydda where this line joined the Haifa – El Kantara main line had large Arab majorities, who blocked Israelis from using railways or roads through this key area. One of the few train movements here after the British withdrawal was in July 1948 when Israeli forces launched
Operation Danny Operation Danny ( he, מבצע דני, ''Mivtza Dani'') was an Israeli military offensive launched at the end of the first truce of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The objectives were to capture territory east of Tel Aviv and then to push inland and ...
to expel the Arab populations of Lydda and Ramla. When the Arab defenders blockaded the railway to help defend Lydda, an Israeli force reportedly used S100 0-6-0T number 21 as a battering ram to breach the fortifications.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=71 Although Operation Danny succeeded in forcing at least 50,000 Arab residents to leave Lydda and Ramla, the military situation between Ramla and Jerusalem still prevented the restoration of regular trains on that line until March 1950.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=88 In the south of the country the rail link with Sinai and Egypt was fought over. Israelis ambushed an Egyptian troop train near
Rafah Rafah ( ar, رفح, Rafaḥ) is a Palestinian city in the southern Gaza Strip. It is the district capital of the Rafah Governorate, located south of Gaza City. Rafah's population of 152,950 (2014) is overwhelmingly made up of former Palestinian ...
, derailing it and inflicting many casualties.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=84 Israeli forces secured nearly all of the Haifa – Ashkelon section of the Haifa – El Kantara main line. However, a short stretch of the Eastern Railway through
Tulkarm Tulkarm, Tulkarem or Tull Keram ( ar, طولكرم, ''Ṭūlkarm'') is a Palestinian city in the West Bank, located in the Tulkarm Governorate of the State of Palestine. The Israeli city of Netanya is to the west, and the Palestinian cities of N ...
was held by Jordanian forces and the
1949 Armistice Agreements The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,the Armistice Line between Israeli- and Jordanian-controlled territory. In August 1948, Israel bypassed Tulkarm with a short stretch of new track just west of what was to become the Armistice Line.{{sfn, Cotterell, 1984, p=86 The Armistice Line between Israel and Syria left the Haifa – Samakh section of the 1050mm gauge Jezreel Valley line in Israeli-controlled territory. Israel Railways continued using parts of this route on an irregular basis until the early 1950s at which point the entire line was abandoned as it was the only narrow gauge line left in the Israeli network. In 2011–2016 the section between Haifa and
Beit She'an Beit She'an ( he, בֵּית שְׁאָן '), also Beth-shean, formerly Beisan ( ar, بيسان ), is a town in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. The town lies at the Beit She'an Valley about 120 m (394 feet) below se ...
was rebuilt in standard gauge along roughly the same route as the Ottoman era one, although the rest of the route along the Jordan River from Beit She'an to Samakh remains dismantled and has not been reopened.


Later implementations of the Pole committee recommendations

The 1935 Pole committee's proposals were eventually realized, in modified form, decades after Palestine Railways' demise. In the early 1950s
Israel Railways Israel Railways Ltd. , dba Israel Railways ( he, רַכֶּבֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל, ''Rakevet Yisra'el''), is the state-owned principal railway company responsible for all inter-city, commuter, and freight rail transport in Israel. Isr ...
finally connected Tel Aviv to Haifa using two northern routes: First through a link to the Eastern Railway via the
Bnei Brak railway station Bnei may refer to: Places * Bnei Atarot, moshav in Central District * Bnei Atzmon, Israeli settlement * Bnei Ayish, town in Central District * Bnei Brak, city in Tel Aviv District * Bnei Darom, moshav in Central District * Bnei Dror, moshav in Cen ...
and later through a new coastal railway to
Hadera Hadera ( he, חֲדֵרָה ) is a city located in the Haifa District of Israel, in the northern Sharon region, approximately 45 kilometers (28 miles) from the major cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa. The city is located along 7 km (5&nbs ...
where it linked up with the existing line to Haifa. These links however served the new Tel Aviv Central Station and were only connected to the Jaffa-Lydda-Jerusalem railway through the Eastern Railway, essentially the same indirect route used by Palestine Railways, until 1993 when the Ayalon Railway was constructed through the center of Tel Aviv. The railway junction in Niana, now called
Na'an Na'an ( he, נַעַן) is a kibbutz near the city of Rehovot in Israel. Located within the Central District, it falls under the jurisdiction of Gezer Regional Council and borders the villages of Ganei Hadar, Ramot Meir and Sitria. Founded i ...
, was built, but rather than serving a line to Rehovot and Rishon LeZion, it served a rebuilt
Railway to Beersheba The Railway to Beersheba ( he, מסילת הרכבת לבאר שבע, ''Mesilat HaRakevet LiV'er Sheva'') is a railroad line that runs from central Israel to the Zin Factories ( Mount Zin) in southern Israel, with a spur to the Be'er Sheva Center R ...
. In 2013, Israel Railways opened a new rail line to Ashdod via the southern Tel Aviv suburbs of Rishon LeZion and
Yavne Yavne ( he, יַבְנֶה) or Yavneh is a city in the Central District of Israel. In many English translations of the Bible, it is known as Jabneh . During Greco-Roman times, it was known as Jamnia ( grc, Ἰαμνία ''Iamníā''; la, Iamnia) ...
, followed by an extension of the Lod-Ashkelon railway to Beersheba via
Sderot Sderot ( he, שְׂדֵרוֹת, , lit. ''Boulevards'', ar, سديروت) is a western Negev city and former development town in the Southern District of Israel. In it had a population of . Sderot is located less than a mile from Gaza (the c ...
,
Netivot Netivot ( he, נְתִיבוֹת, "''paths''", ar, نتيڤوت) is a city in the Southern District of Israel located between Beersheba and Gaza. In , it had a population of . History Netivot was founded in 1956 and named after the bible: " ...
and
Ofakim Ofakim ( he, אֳפָקִים ''ʾŎfāqīm'', or אוֹפָקִים ''ʾŌfāqīm'', ''lit.'' "horizons") is a city in the Southern District of Israel, 20 kilometers (12.4 mi) west of Beersheba. It achieved municipal status in 1955. I ...
two years later, finally creating a southbound rail route that bypasses Lydda (now called Lod).


Current status

The former Palestine Railways are currently in three parts: *Egypt: slowly being rebuilt by
Egyptian National Railways Egyptian National Railways (ENR; ar, السكك الحديدية المصرية, Al-Sikak al-Ḥadīdiyyah al-Miṣriyyah) is the national railway of Egypt and managed by the parastatal Egyptian Railway Authority (ERA; ar, الهيئة الق ...
. *Palestine: in the
Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...
and
West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
, disused and mostly dismantled. *Israel: operated by
Israel Railways Israel Railways Ltd. , dba Israel Railways ( he, רַכֶּבֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל, ''Rakevet Yisra'el''), is the state-owned principal railway company responsible for all inter-city, commuter, and freight rail transport in Israel. Isr ...
and being expanded. The HBT Railway is mostly dismantled except for the short section between Haifa and
Nahariya Nahariya ( he, נַהֲרִיָּה, ar, نهاريا) is the northernmost coastal city in Israel. In it had a population of . Etymology Nahariya takes its name from the stream of Ga'aton (river is ''nahar'' in Hebrew), which bisects it. Hist ...
(nearby Az-Zeeb). This section has also been double tracked by Israel Railways. As the area north of Nahariya the HBT railway passes through is now a national park, Israel Railway's tenative plans for a new railway to Lebanon foresee a new railway to the east of the HBT railway, branching off the Acre-Karmiel railway at
Ahihud Ahihud ( he, אֲחִיהוּד) is a moshav in the Western Galilee in northern Israel, about 9 km east of Acre. It was founded in 1950, settled by Jewish refugees from Yemen. It belongs to the Moshavim Movement and falls within the jurisdic ...
.


Sinai railway restoration

Israel dismantled much of the railway in Sinai in the period between the
Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states (primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, S ...
and the
Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egy ...
, re-using most of the materials to build the Bar Lev Line fortifications along the Suez Canal. In the 21st century, starting from Egypt in the south,
Egyptian National Railways Egyptian National Railways (ENR; ar, السكك الحديدية المصرية, Al-Sikak al-Ḥadīdiyyah al-Miṣriyyah) is the national railway of Egypt and managed by the parastatal Egyptian Railway Authority (ERA; ar, الهيئة الق ...
opened the El Ferdan
swing bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravity, about which the swing span (turning span) can then pi ...
on 14 November 2001, replacing a bridge destroyed in the Six-Day War in 1967. From El Ferdan, work then started on slowly rebuilding the former route to
El Arish ʻArish or el-ʻArīsh ( ar, العريش ' , ''Hrinokorura'') is the capital and largest city (with 164,830 inhabitants ) of the North Sinai Governorate of Egypt, as well as the largest city on the entire Sinai Peninsula, lying on the Medite ...
, with the possibility of renewing the rest of the route to Gaza. The project includes a branch line to
Port Said Port Said ( ar, بورسعيد, Būrsaʿīd, ; grc, Πηλούσιον, Pēlousion) is a city that lies in northeast Egypt extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Suez Canal. With an approximate population of 6 ...
Container Terminal. In December 2008
Google Earth Google Earth is a computer program that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satellite images, aerial photography, and geog ...
showed progress with stations as far as Bir el-'Abd while some remnants of the old trackbed towards El Arish and Rafah are still visible. Later in the first decade of the 2000s, the rebuilt line in the Sinai became neglected, disused and overrun by sandstorms in many locations. In July 2012, the Egyptian transportation ministry declared its intention to restore the line to Bir el-'Abd. However, this was not carried out and a few years later the construction of the
New Suez Canal The Suez Canal Corridor Area Project ( ar, مشروع تطوير محور قناة السويس) is a megaproject in Egypt that was launched on 5 August 2014 by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and completed in 2015. The project aimed to increas ...
had since completely disconnected the Sinai from the rest of Egypt’s rail network until a new rail bridge is built somewhere across the canal.


Gallery

File:רחובות - מראה פרדסי רחובות - צילום אויר-JNF007795.jpeg, Train passing through
Rehovot Rehovot ( he, רְחוֹבוֹת ''Rəḥōvōt'', ar, رحوڤوت ''Reḥūfūt'') is a city in the Central District of Israel, about south of Tel Aviv. In it had a population of . Etymology Israel Belkind, founder of the Bilu movement, ...
orchards 1939 Image:Haifa Hedschasbahndenkmal 2.jpg, Ottoman monument outside Haifa East station erected in 1905 to commemorate the opening of the Jezreel Valley branch of the Hejaz Railway File:Haifa RM 07 WS.jpg, Compartment of BRCW saloon coach 98, built 1922, now preserved at the
Israel Railway Museum Israel Railway Museum ( he, מוזיאון רכבת ישראל) is the national railway museum of Israel, located in Haifa. The railway museum is owned by Israel Railways and is located at the Haifa East Railway Station which nowadays no longer s ...
File:Haifa RM 02.jpg, Tender of NBL 4-6-0 no. 62, built 1935, now preserved at the Israel Railway Museum File:Kantara - Tel Aviv Palestine Railways Ticket.jpg, A ticket from El Qantara to Tel Aviv (1941) File:PalestineRailways-1946-ClassH-1.jpg, SLM in Switzerland built this 1050mm gauge 2-8-0 for the Hejaz Railway in 1912. It was originally numbered 90 and later renumbered 153. In 1927 it was transferred to Palestine Railways to work the
Jezreel Valley railway The Jezreel Valley railway, or the Valley Train ( he, רַכֶּבֶת הָעֵמֶק, ''Rakevet HaEmek'' ; ar, خط سكة حديد حيفا – درعا, khaṭṭ sikkat ḥadīd Ḥayfa–Dar‘a) was a railroad that existed in Ottoman and ...
. It is pictured here in 1946. File:British rail bridge over Ofakim wadi 01.jpg, Railway bridge over Nahal Ofakim north of Beer-Sheba. File:Herbert Samuel railway inauguration2.jpg,
Sir Herbert Samuel Herbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel, (6 November 1870 – 5 February 1963) was a British Liberal politician who was the party leader from 1931 to 1935. He was the first nominally-practising Jew to serve as a Cabinet minister and to beco ...
, The first British High Commissioner for Palestine, at the ceremony to reopen the Jaffa – Jerusalem line in 1920 after it had been widened to standard gauge File:Poster1922-image001.jpg, 1922 passenger advertisement File:Bracket Semaphore signal.JPG, 1930s Palestine Railways Semaphore signal at Haifa East, with shunting arm added by Israel Railways in the 1950s, now part of the
Israel Railway Museum Israel Railway Museum ( he, מוזיאון רכבת ישראל) is the national railway museum of Israel, located in Haifa. The railway museum is owned by Israel Railways and is located at the Haifa East Railway Station which nowadays no longer s ...
collection


See also

*
Baghdad Railway Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
(built 1903-1940), initially a German-Ottoman project * Narrow-gauge railway#Similar gauges *
Rail transport in Israel Rail transport in Israel includes heavy rail (inter-city, commuter, and freight rail) as well as light rail. Excluding light rail, the network consists of of track, and is undergoing constant expansion. All of the lines are standard gauge and as ...
*
Transport in Jordan With the exception of a railway system, Jordan has a developed public and private transportation system. There are three international airports in Jordan. The Hedjaz Jordan Railway runs one passenger train a day each way. Roadways In 2009, ...


References

{{Reflist


Bibliography

*{{cite book , last=Cotterell , first=Paul , isbn=0-905878-04-3 , year=1984 , title=The Railways of Palestine and Israel , place=Abingdon , publisher=Tourret Publishing *{{cite book, last1=Foster, first1=Timothy Charles, editor1-last=Dodds, editor1-first=James, editor2-last=Dodds, editor2-first=Catherine, title=Tracks in the Sand: A Railwayman's War, date=2018, publisher=Jardine Press, location=Wivenhoe, Essex, isbn=9780993477942 *
Hansard ''Hansard'' is the traditional name of the transcripts of parliamentary debates in Britain and many Commonwealth countries. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard (1776–1833), a London printer and publisher, who was the first official print ...
, {{cite hansard , house=
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
, title=Palestine (Railways), url=http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1935/jul/17/palestine-railways , date=17 July 1935 , column_start=1030 , column_end=1033 *{{cite book , last=Hughes , first=Hugh , isbn=9780950346977 , year=1981 , title=Middle East Railways , place=Harrow , publisher=Continental Railway Circle , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QDxGAAAAYAAJ *{{cite book , last=Judd , first=Brendon , isbn=0-14-301915-5 , orig-year=2003 , year=2004 , title=The Desert Railway: The New Zealand Railway Group in North Africa and the Middle East during the Second World War , place=Auckland , publisher=
Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...
*{{cite journal , last=Rothschild , first=Walter , year=1992 , title=History of Ashdod Ad Halom Railway Station , journal=HaRakevet , issue=18 , page=11 , url=http://harakevetmagazine.com/downloads/HRKIssue18.pdf , access-date=6 December 2009 *{{cite book , last=Sherman , first=A.J. , isbn=0-8018-6620-0 , year=2001 , title=Mandate Days: British Lives in Palestine, 1918-1948 , place=Baltimore & London , publisher=
Johns Hopkins University Press The Johns Hopkins University Press (also referred to as JHU Press or JHUP) is the publishing division of Johns Hopkins University. It was founded in 1878 and is the oldest continuously running university press in the United States. The press publi ...
*{{cite book , last=Tourret , first=R. , isbn=0-905878-00-0 , year=1976 , title=War Department Locomotives , place=Abingdon , publisher=Tourret Publishing * {{cite book, last=Tourret, first=R., title=Hedjaz Railway, publisher=Tourret Publishing, year=1989, isbn=0-905878-05-1. This includes a lot on the narrow-gauge lines within Palestine.


External links

*{{cite book , editor-last=Winchester , editor-first=Clarence , year=1936 , chapter = Railways in Palestine , url=http://www.railwaywondersoftheworld.com/palestine.html , title = Railway Wonders of the World, pages=1082–1090 , place=London , publisher=Amalgamated Press Description of the railways of Palestine in the 1930s
HaRakevet
- official archive of ''HaRakevet'' magazine (edited and published by Walter Rothschild) and a link to the editor's PhD Thesis ''Arthr Kirby and the Palestine Railways 1945-1948.'' {{Authority control Mediterranean theatre of World War II Middle East theatre of World War II Middle Eastern theatre of World War I Rail transport in Mandatory Palestine Railway companies disestablished in 1948 Railway companies established in 1920 1050 mm gauge railways 600 mm gauge railways