There are no operating railways in the Palestinian territories. The
Camp David agreements, and repeated in statements made by Israel in 2005, there was a proposal to link the two Palestinian territories with a high speed
rail line. This would involve extending the
Heletz railway to
Tarqumiyah (thus providing a rail link from
Erez Crossing to the
West Bank) and building a spur for the future
Eastern Railway to
Tulkarm, as well as rebuilding the old railway branch from a renewed
Jezreel Valley Railway to
Jenin. These links might be extended later through to
Egypt and
Jordan. , a plan for a 475-kilometer rail network, establishing 11 new rail lines in West Bank, was confirmed by Israeli Transportation Ministry. The West Bank network would include one line running through Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah, Jerusalem, Ma'aleh Adumim, Bethlehem and Hebron. Another would provide service along the Jordanian border from Eilat to the Dead Sea, Jericho and Beit She'an and from there toward Haifa in the west and in also in a northeasterly direction. The proposed scheme also calls for shorter routes, such as between Nablus and Tulkarm in the West Bank, and from Ramallah to the
Allenby Bridge crossing into Jordan.
History The
Gaza Strip had a
standard-gauge railway running 34 kilometers along its length from north to south, which was built in 1916. Prior to 1948 and from about 1972 until an unknown date the line connected to what then became the
Israeli system to the north. It also connected to the
Egyptian railway system to the south from 1916 to 1967. The line has now been dismantled. In the West Bank, a
narrow-gauge railway operated until the 1940s from
Jenin to
Tulkarm and
Nablus, which was built during
Ottoman rule, and connected to the
Hejaz Railway on a gauge.
Links with adjacent countries Several defunct railways in the Palestinian territories were previously used to link with adjacent countries: • see
Israel • A standard gauge rail link between Israel and Gaza through the
Erez Crossing operated until the early 1970s. The railway has been dismantled in the Gaza Strip, and on the Israeli side
Israel Railways' active railway line ends about 4.5 km northeast of the crossing, though in the future it may be re-extended to the crossing to provide a cargo service to the Gaza Strip. :* The narrow gauge
Jezreel Valley Railway branch from
Afula to Jenin operated until the 1940s. Also, until the late 1940s, a
gauge break existed in Tulkarm between the Jenin—Tulkarm—Nablus narrow gauge railway and the standard gauge Eastern Railway. All these connections are now defunct. •
Egypt - defunct (Gaza) == Roadways ==