Heavy traffic expected on coastal roads as train shutters track sections for a week

Major traffic jams were expected along Israel’s coastal roads starting Sunday, as Israel Railways shutters parts of the Tel Aviv-Haifa line for infrastructure work.

The work on further connecting the coastal line to the eastern one, which runs through cities such as Petah Tikva, Kfar Saba and Ra’anana, will last between Sunday, July 24, and Saturday, July 30.

Northbound trains will end their journeys in Herzliya or Netanya, while southbound trains from Nahariya will stop in Binyamina. Shuttle services will run between several central stations and between the temporary line ending stations. Full information is available on the Israel Railways website.

With thousands of people now having to travel on roads rather than by rail, major blockages were expected throughout the week.

Israel Railways said the work had been intentionally timed for the summer period that has relatively less road traffic than usual.

Israelis have increasingly been suffering from high traffic congestion. The population’s concentration in the center of the country, the stagnant public transportation system and the slow pace of road construction have caused traffic in Israel to be 3.5 times worse than the OECD average, even though the rate of car ownership is relatively low compared to other developed countries.