Israel's Rail Network: Ambition Meets Geography

Logosofia no Dia a Dia · May 23, 2026 · 30m

Israel's Tel Aviv to Jerusalem line gets called "high-speed," but it maxes out at 160 km/h — well below the international threshold. Why? The Judean Hills forced tight curves and steep grades that no TGV could handle. This episode explores the full story of Israel's rail network: the 15-year gauge conversion project that modernized Ottoman-era tracks, the per-kilometer costs that haunt expansion plans, and the real bottleneck — not track kilometers, but integration. Israel's rail mode share is 8%, while Switzerland's is 40% with similar geography. The difference? Timed transfers, unified…