Commuters face serious delays as damage to train lines coincides with strike for hostages

Commuters faced significant disruptions on Sunday as Israel Railways worked to repair damage caused by a freight train to several hundred meters of electric cable infrastructure last week, while a nationwide strike urging the government to reach a comprehensive deal to release hostages held in Gaza compounded the difficulties.

Throughout the week, passengers can expect delays and disruptions to their train services, Israel Railways said. Israel Railways CEO Moshe Jana expects repairs could take a week and a half, Channel 12 news reported.

“This is a mega-event like no other we have experienced,” an Israel Railways official told media outlets last week.

Israel Railways recommended commuters use alternative forms of transportation, and offered substitute buses between Tel Aviv’s Savidor Station and Haifa’s train stations on Sunday morning — routes that also face delays due to protesters blocking highways.

For those taking trains, passengers traveling between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv will need to switch at Ben Gurion Airport, since the electric-powered trains that operate along the route cannot continue on to Tel Aviv due to the damage. Diesel-powered trains will operate as an alternative.

Trains running along the Ashkelon-Binyamina and Beit Shemesh-Netanya lines will terminate at Lod, while stations between Ganei Aviv and Kfar Chabad will not operate.

Additionally, on Sunday, the search function on the Israel Railways website crashed due to a large number of passengers trying to access the site.

Services were disrupted after the freight train caused extensive damage to infrastructure overnight Thursday-Friday near the Ganot Junction south of Tel Aviv. Israel Railways is probing the incident, the Ynet news site reported.

Rachel, a Holon resident, told Ynet her morning commute was “really exhausting.”

“I am a single mother with two kids, one of whom is disabled. There was a delay of several minutes on the train, and even when we got on, there was no place to sit and barely room for our luggage,” she said.

“It could be that my kids will be two hours on a bus. How does that advance the return of the hostages? If it does, I am in favor, but I don’t think so,” she said.

Tomer, a soldier who usually travels to his base near Beersheba by train from Tel Aviv, told Ynet that by taking buses, his one-and-a-half-hour journey will take four to five hours due to traffic.

“We have heavy bags and it is terribly exhausting,” he said.