A 54km Track to Kiryat Shmona and an 18 Billion Shekel Bill

Israel’s Ministry of Transportation, the state roads company Netivei Israel and Israel Railways announced the start of construction on the Tel Aviv–Kiryat Shmona railway, the northern section of a national programme called “Connecting Israel”. The project carries an investment of approximately 18 billion shekels, about $5.3 billion, and the three bodies presented it as the point at which the plan moved from drawings to work on the ground.

The new track runs approximately 54 kilometres and was designed as a double track carrying both passengers and freight. It is intended to link Kiryat Shmona, in the far north near the Lebanese border, and the Upper and Lower Galilee to the national rail network, giving the region direct access to the rest of the country. The wider programme, the announcement said, involves roughly 300 kilometres of high-speed line for passengers and freight, trains running at up to 250 kilometres per hour on part of the route, and a fast direct connection between Israel’s largest metropolitan areas: Haifa, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Beersheba.

What 'Connecting Israel' is meant to deliver

The programme is the largest transport commitment Israel has made. The cabinet approved a fast-rail spine running from Kiryat Shmona in the north to Eilat on the Red Sea in July 2023, at an estimated 100 billion shekels, roughly $27 billion, spread over years, covering about 400 kilometres of line with trains at up to 250 kilometres per hour and a target completion date of 2040, The Times of Israel reported at the time. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said then that the line could one day connect Israel to Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Peninsula.

A route that was eleven years in the approving

The northern section has a long paper trail. The Karmiel–Kiryat Shmona route was formally approved in June 2021, eleven years after the government first decided to extend the Karmiel–Haifa line northwards, Globes reported. The approved route ran 54 kilometres through mountainous terrain, including 20 kilometres of tunnel and 5.6 kilometres of bridges, with four new stations planned at Karmiel East, Merom HaGalil, Hatzor HaGlilit and a Kiryat Shmona terminus. Globes put the likely cost at a minimum of 20 billion shekels and reported that, although the line had originally been planned for 250 kilometres per hour, the final design accommodated trains at up to 160 kilometres per hour.

The rest of the network being built at the same time

The northern line is one of several projects under way. Israel Railways is also building a new coastal line between Tel Aviv and Haifa designed for 250 kilometres per hour, at 15.5 billion shekels, described as the most expensive project the operator has undertaken, with a first phase of about 70 kilometres from Hof HaCarmel station towards Shefayim and a target of 2029, The Jerusalem Post reported in July 2025. Transport Minister Miri Regev said a 30-minute Haifa to Tel Aviv journey was a near-term goal, and the operator is aiming for roughly 300 million passenger journeys a year by 2040, about five times its capacity at the time.

What the announcement did not say

The three bodies gave no completion date for the Kiryat Shmona line, no station list and no operating speed for this section specifically, a gap that matters, given that the route approved in 2021 was designed for 160 kilometres per hour while the programme headline refers to 250. They did not explain the difference between the 18 billion shekel figure announced and the 20 billion minimum estimated at approval, and they did not say what “the start of construction” covers: enabling works, tunnelling, or track.