The Coastal railway line () is a mainline railway in Israel, which begins just south of the Lebanon-Israel border on the Mediterranean coast, near the town of Nahariya in Northern Israel and stretches almost the entire Mediterranean coast of the country, to just north of the border with the Gaza Strip in the south.
History
The northern part of the coastal line from Acre (Akko) to Remez Junction (located south of today's Caesarea-Pardes Hanna Railway Station) was built by the British during the 1920s and operated by Palestine Railways. In 1941–42 engineers of the South African Army and New Zealand Army extended the line north to Beirut and Tripoli, Lebanon, through railway tunnels at Rosh HaNikra grottoes. Following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War the tunnel linking the line to Lebanon was blocked; it was subsequently stripped of its track, backfilled in its Lebanese side, and now forms a part of Rosh HaNikra national park where it hosts an audiovisual theater. It is unlikely that the tunnel will ever service a railway again; in addition to passing through what is now a nature reserve, it is insufficiently wide to service double-tracked lines. Israel Railway's internal plans foresee a new railway to Lebanon, branching off at the midpoint of the Acre-Karmiel railway in Ahihud, in the event of rail links being re-established.
The section south from Remez junction including its then-terminus, the Tel Aviv Central Railway Station, were built by Israel Railways in the beginning of the 1950s and the new line opened in May 1953 with Tel Aviv Central opening in November 1954. This new railroad then became the main north-south rail link between northern and central Israel, supplementing the older, more easterly/inland section which connected Remez junction and the nearby Hadera East Railway Station to the Lod Railway Station in central Israel that was constructed during the Ottoman period (and known today as the Eastern railway line, which has been partially abandoned since 1969). This new section of coastal railway from Remez junction linked the Tel Aviv Central Station and Haifa Central Railway Station and significantly shortened the travel time between the two cities as well as providing rail service to the cities of Herzliya and Netanya.
Little development of the line followed for the next forty years until 1988 when works started on extending the railway southwards from Tel Aviv Central along the Ayalon Highway. The new railway section, about 5 km in length, was opened in 1993 as the Ayalon Railway; passing through the heart of Tel Aviv, it quickly became the busiest railway line in Israel. It was the first railway line in Israel to be double-tracked from the outset, allowing up to 8 trains per hour in each direction; but even that proved insufficient, and by 2 November 2006, the entire section had been widened to triple-track, increasing the capacity to 14 trains per hour in each direction. A project has been approved to add a fourth track to the line, narrowing the conduit of Ayalon River to make room for the new track, and diverting the excess rainwater into specially-constructed reservoirs.
The opening of the Ayalon Railway, extending the Coastal Railway to connect with the Jaffa–Jerusalem railway, heralded a new era of railway development in the country as it allowed trains from the north to reach the south of the country through, rather than around, the nation's largest metropolis. Along this new railway section, two additional stations were built: Tel Aviv HaShalom opened in March 1996, and Tel Aviv HaHagana on 22 June 2002. During the construction of the Ayalon Highway, a provision was made for a third station between these two, at Yitzhak Sadeh bridge – although this station has yet to be built.
Over the years additional stations were built along the line, including Hadera West (1957), Haifa Hof HaCarmel (1999), Tel Aviv University (2000), Caesarea-Pardes Hanna (June 2001), Lev HaMifratz (Sep 2001) and Hutzot HaMifratz (Oct 2001).