Israel Railways Adds 40,000 Seats a Day After a Record Year

Israel Railways introduced a new timetable from the evening of Saturday 17 January 2026 that adds more than 40,000 seats a day across the network, the Ministry of Transport and Road Safety announced. The changes lengthen trains, add carriages on main lines, bring newer high-capacity electric trains into service on additional routes and extend operating hours at many stations, with an emphasis on the south and the north, the areas Israelis call the periphery, meaning the regions farthest from the Tel Aviv metropolitan core.

According to the announcement, 2025 closed with a record of roughly 72 million train journeys, and the ministry attributed the growth to a policy of buying new trains and carriages, accelerating electrification, lengthening trains and bringing in advanced electric units that carry up to about 2,000 passengers each. Transport Minister Miri Regev said the expansion was part of a policy of improving connectivity between the periphery and the centre, described in the announcement as the "Connecting Israel" vision.

Where the extra seats go

The changes named in the announcement are specific. At Be'er Sheva's stations, on the Western Negev line, operating hours will run until midnight from Sunday to Thursday and until 15:00 on Fridays once electrification works between Ofakim and Be'er Sheva are complete, with service resuming on Saturday evenings and about 4,000 seats added daily. New Siemens electric trains will run for the first time on the Sharon Ring and Western Negev lines, and electric trains on the Netanya–Rehovot line will grow from six carriages to twelve, adding some 8,000 seats a day.

Trains on the Karmiel–Be'er Sheva line, busiest on Sundays and Thursdays, go to nine carriages for roughly 3,240 more seats daily. The Nahariya–Ben Gurion Airport–Modi'in line, one of the most heavily used, goes to nine carriages at peak times, adding 13,140 seats a day. The Nahariya–Be'er Sheva line moves to eight carriages, adding about 3,240 seats. The Beit She'an–Atlit route, known as the Valley Line, and the Karmiel–Haifa line will run double-decker trains, adding more than ten thousand seats daily. Some departure times change, and Saturday evening services shift in line with the times the announcement gives for the end of the Jewish Sabbath.

The electrification behind the timetable

Almost everything in the announcement depends on one long infrastructure programme: converting a diesel railway to electric traction. Israel's heavy rail network runs to about 1,511 kilometres of standard-gauge track, state-owned and operated by Israel Railways, and is being electrified at 25 kV 50 Hz, according to reference accounts of the network, which recorded roughly a fifth of the network as electrified as of the early 2020s.

The rolling stock for it was ordered years in advance. The Times of Israel reported in September 2017 that Siemens had won the tender to supply 330 double-deck electric cars in a contract worth about NIS 3.83bn, or roughly $1.08bn, covering delivery and maintenance over five years from 2020. Globes reported in July 2018 that the 330 carriages would join an existing fleet of 520, that they come in four- and six-car sets that can be coupled into trains of up to fourteen cars, and put the cost of the wider electrification programme at NIS 13bn.

That is why lengthening a train is not a trivial act. Longer electric sets need platforms, power supply and depot capacity to match, which is the reason additions arrive line by line as works finish rather than all at once.

What the officials said

Regev said the growth in passenger numbers expressed public trust in the policy being pursued. The ministry's director general, Moshe Ben Zaken, described the timetable as the product of consistent professional work with a long-term systemic view. Israel Railways board chairman Moshe Shimoni thanked passengers and said the company was preparing for further growth, and acting chief executive Avi Elmaliach credited the procurement and integration of new trains, infrastructure development and electrification. Passengers were advised to check updated times on the Israel Railways website, its app or the telephone service centre on *5770.

What is still unclear

The announcement did not say when the Ofakim–Be'er Sheva electrification works would be finished, and the extended southern hours are conditional on that. It did not give a punctuality or reliability figure to set against the extra capacity, did not say whether fares change, and did not indicate how many of the ordered electric trains are now in service. Nor did it break the 72 million journeys down by line or by year-on-year comparison.