Train services resume after hours-long glitch, no indication of cyberattack

Free shuttles offered to passengers while engineers work on problem

By ToI Staff 27 November 2022, 10:04 am

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Passengers at Ben Gurion train station near Tel Aviv on October 28, 2021. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

Israel Railways services resumed operation early Sunday after several hours of trains being shut down due to a nationwide signaling malfunction.

The error, caused by sporadic crashes of the railway signaling system that prevented the safe movement of trains across the country, was fixed shortly after 12 a.m.

Israel Railways initially said the error would be fixed by 9 p.m. on Saturday but then said all activity would be halted until the issue was fixed.

While services were down, shuttles were offered to passengers from most train stations for free, the state-owned company said in a statement. Others were advised to seek other public transportation solutions.

Though several Iranian news outlets reported the shutdown, Israel Railways insisted that there was no indication the error was caused by a cyberattack.

Engineers said the glitch affected a closed system that is unconnected to an external network, meaning hackers would not have been able to gain access remotely.