in Beersheba before undergoing restoration in 2013. to
Auja The railway traces its origins to the
Ottoman rule in
Palestine and the
Sinai and Palestine military campaign of
World War I. The main Turkish objective in the Middle East during World War I was to either capture or disable the
Suez Canal, which would have put the
British Empire at a great disadvantage. However, transporting troops and supplies from
Constantinople to the front lines took months by camel caravan. After his assault on the British garrison along the canal in January–February, 1915,
Jamal Pasha enlisted the help of the German engineer
Heinrich August Meissner, who also planned the
Hejaz Railway, to help him find a more efficient method of logistics. Meissner started constructing a railway to the south of the Palestine region, with the Wadi Surar (
Nahal Sorek) station serving as the starting point. Two railways were originally built: one to
Beit Hanoun, and the other to
Beersheba. The two lines were collectively called the 'Egyptian Branch'. Thus the branch line from Rafah became the only rail connection to Beersheba, with a very infrequent service from
Qantara; it, too, was discontinued in July 1927, citing low usage and high maintenance costs. After the
1948 Arab-Israeli War the railway was rebuilt, in a straightened route and in standard gauge, by Israel Railways, and was originally meant for freight-only service. The second railway to Beersheba splits off the
Jaffa–Jerusalem railway about 6 km north of the former Wadi Surar junction, then continues roughly along the old route to
Kiryat Gat, then continues on a new route directly south, and approaches Beersheba from the north, whereas the old Turkish route made a lengthy detour to the southwest, and approached Beersheba from the northwest. The new line was completed in 1956, and passenger service started on September 29. Construction on the extensions to
Dimona, Zin and Tzefa began shortly after. In 1967 the line reached Dimona,
Oron in 1970 and Mount Zin in 1977. With the eventual decline of Israel Railways's passenger business, the passenger service to Beersheba was halted in 1979. Freight service on the railway continued however, and in the early 1980s the
Heletz railway was built to provide another link between the Railway to Beersheba and the Lod-Ashkelon railway, serving as a shortcut for trains from southern Israel bound for the
Port of Ashdod. In the early-to-mid-1990s the line underwent another renovation which facilitated the renewal of passenger service, first to Be'er Sheva North in 1997, then extended to the city's center with the opening of Be'er Sheva Center in 2000. Nevertheless, the ride from Beersheba to Tel Aviv remained lengthy and train frequency constrained as the long stretch of railway from Lod to Beersheba still consisted of only a single track with sharp curves and other geometric deficiencies as well as many at-grade railroad crossings. To alleviate the aforementioned issues, from Q3 2004 to Q2 2012, the entire line from north of Na'an junction to Be'er Sheva Center was
double tracked and rebuilt on an improved route with gentler curves in many places, all
level crossings replaced by
grade separations, and increased station capacity. This effort faced many bureaucratic challenges and the need for extensive right of way purchases, thus raising land owners' objections, and was further complicated by the requirement for the existing line to stay in use during the works. The length of this project, which began at the
Lod Railway Station, was 87 km and cost NIS 2.8 billion. The rebuilt line has reduced train delays, enabled many more trains to operate along the route and shortened the travel time from Tel Aviv to Beersheba from over 80 minutes before the works began to about 55 minutes after the project was completed (with the possibility of further reductions in travel time following the line's planned electrification and when faster rolling stock will be added to Israel Railways' fleet in the future). Consequently, in the years since the line's reconstruction there has been a significant increase in the number of train passengers to and from Beersheba. In September 2015 a connection between the Railway to Beersheba and the Ashkelon–Beersheba railway was opened using a
flying junction at Goral Junction north of Beersheba. The section of railway between Goral and Be'er Sheva North Railway Station is designed to be triple-tracked in the future. ==Passenger service==