The railway track will be built at a cost of NIS 3.2 billion and is expected to reduce the travel time between Rishon Lezion and Jerusalem and Modi'in by 50%. • Estimated date of completion: 2025
Electra Infrastructure will build the first section of the southern railway line that will connect Modi'in to Rishon Lezion alongside Route 431. Electra, which competed in the tender with Danya Cebus, will carry out infrastructure works for an amount of NIS 385 million in the framework of the project which total volume amounts to NIS 3.2 billion. The project will be managed by the subsidiary Electra Infrastructure of the Electra Group (managed by Itamar Deutscher).
This is a coordinated project for laying a railway alongside Road 531 between Raanana and Herzliya, and upon its completion, around 2025, a railway ring will also be completed around Gush Dan.
This is one of the most complex engineering and logistics projects in the railways sector to be built in the coming years. The railway track, of a total length of 30 kilometers, will include the longest railway bridge (about 3.5 kilometers from the Rishonim interchange to the Kiryat Rishon interchange) and three tunnels to be built under Road 20 (Ayalon Highway) in the area of the Moshe Dayan train station. Laying the railway track in the section of Road 431 is also expected to cause difficulties due to the traffic density and the large number of infrastructures that are already in place.
The railway track will connect to the high-speed line to Jerusalem in the area of the Annaba interchange and will allow a direct connection between the capital and Rishon Lezion and the towns located south of Gush Dan. Travel time from Rishon Lezion to Jerusalem is 45 minutes (compared to 1 hour and 20 minutes today). ) Travel time between Rishon Lezion (Moshe Dayan station) to Modi’in will be shortened by 50% from one hour to half an hour. Electra's tender relates to the section from the Rishonim station to the Ramla South interchange, a section of 2 km.
Israel Railways stated that the section of the railway track that Electra Infrastructure will carry out, led by the construction division of the Israel Railways Development Division, is the first of ten railway track sections that make up the project. The section includes the laying of new 5.5 km long railway tracks, two railway bridges and a tunnel which financial scope is estimated at approximately NIS 400 million.
Israeli Railways further added that Project 431 will form the southern edge of the railway loop that surrounds Gush Dan, which includes about 100 kilometers of railway tracks, while the northern flank is installed by Sharon Railway, which was built alongside the path of Route 531 by Netivei Israel, and the first part of it was inaugurated in July of last year, with the opening of two Raanana stations.