'Cultural changes' spark turnaround at Israel Railways

摘要

Tel Aviv central station at rush hour is a hive of activity. Trains arrive every few minutes from cities all over Israel dropping off smartly-dressed commuters ready for work in the city's central business district while picking up students and more professionals bound for study and work in other areas. The situation is a far cry from the railway of old. With the network geared towards freight, only a skeleton passenger service was available, which was unreliable and unsuitable for commuters on a tight schedule. But since the railway split from Israel's port authority in 2003 to become its own company, it has undergone a stark transformation. From six lines carrying 201 trains per day and 12.7 million passengers per year in 2000, it carried 53 million passengers on 460 daily trains and nine lines in 2015, which is expected to increase by a further 10% this year, with the aim to serve 65.7 million passengers on 860 daily trains on 16 lines by 2018.