Israel Railways / Kikar HaShabbat (archive; crop).
Israel’s Transportation Ministry and Israel Railways have announced a timetable expansion starting Saturday evening, November 14, that will give passengers at Hadera West, Netanya and Beit Yehoshua direct trains to Jerusalem and Ben Gurion Airport, without changing trains.
The existing Jerusalem Yitzhak Navon-Tel Aviv-Herzliya service will extend north to the three stations, according to Ynet’s report on the announcement. The change will also increase service during off-peak hours and add capacity on the coastal line.
The expansion includes daytime and overnight connections to the airport and Jerusalem. Kikar HaShabbat’s Hebrew report, citing the railway announcement, says higher-capacity electric trains will replace diesel trains on the affected services.
The announced capacity increase is approximately 140,000 seats a day across Hadera West, Netanya, Beit Yehoshua, Herzliya, Tel Aviv University-Expo and Lod Ganei Aviv stations. That is added seating capacity, not a forecast of 140,000 additional passengers.
The new timetable comes with a trade-off for some northbound travelers. Trains on the Be’er Sheva-Karmiel line will no longer stop at Hadera West. Passengers traveling between Hadera West and Haifa will instead change at Binyamina, adding about 16 minutes to the journey, according to the announcement as reported by Kikar.
Another adjustment will add a Lod Ganei Aviv stop to the Binyamina-Ashkelon line in place of a stop on the Beit Shemesh service, expanding direct connections from Ganei Aviv to Kfar Chabad.
Kikar reported that the service expansion follows 72 million rail journeys in 2025 and more than 300,000 daily journeys in the first half of 2026. It said the changes draw on electrification, the new eastern rail line and the ETCS Level 2 signaling system.
Departure times on some other routes will also change as part of the timetable update. Passengers should check the updated schedule for their specific journey before traveling, including whether a familiar direct service now requires a transfer.
JBizNews Desk | Jerusalem
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