page_title: Rail transport in Israel
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Rail transport in Israel / History
caption_attribution_description: Jerusalem English: First Train in the Railwaystation of Jerusalem 1892. Русский: Первый поезд на вокзале в Иерусалиме в 1892 г.
context_page_description: Rail transport in Israel includes heavy rail as well as light rail. Excluding light rail, the network consists of 1,384 kilometers of track, and is undergoing constant expansion. All of the lines are standard gauge and as of 2016 the heavy rail network is in the initial stages of an electrification programme. A government owned company, Israel Railways, manages the entire heavy rail network. Most of the network is located on the densely populated coastal plain. The only light rail line in Israel is the Jerusalem Light Rail, though another line in Tel Aviv is currently under construction.
  Many of the rail routes in Israel date back to before the establishment of the state – to the days of the British Mandate for Palestine and earlier. Rail infrastructure was considered less important than road infrastructure during the state's early years, and except for the construction of the coastal railway in the early 1950s, the network saw little investment until the late 1980s. In 1993, a rail connection was opened between the coastal railway from the north and southern lines through Tel Aviv.
caption: The first Jaffa–Jerusalem train arriving in Jerusalem
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