TEL AVIV RAIL HUB
Israel Railways carried a record 71.8 million passengers in 2025 (+10%), Tel Aviv HaShalom is the country’s busiest station at 17.2 million — and the Red Line light rail already moves 100,000 people a day under the city, with the Green Line tunnelling toward 2028.
Four Tel Aviv stations anchor the network: HaShalom (17.2 million journeys, the national leader), Savidor Central, HaHagana and University. The high-speed line puts Jerusalem’s Yitzhak Navon station 30–35 minutes away; Haifa is under an hour, Be’er Sheva about ninety minutes. Ridership set records all through 2025 — 7.3 million journeys in December alone, a single-day record of 376,000 on December 21 — with electrification at 72% of the network, 40,000 seats a day added from January 2026 and the new eastern-line stations (opened June 2026) cutting Tayyiba–Tel Aviv to 46 minutes.
The Red Line light rail — opened August 18, 2023 — runs 24 km and 34 stops (10 underground) from Bat Yam through Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan and Bnei Brak to Petah Tikva, carrying about 100,000 passengers a day against a 70-million-a-year forecast. Next is the Green Line: 39 km, 62 stops, a ₪17.2 billion build with roughly 5 km of tunnels already bored — southern segment in 2028, the full line to Herzliya in 2030, a train every four minutes at peak and 250,000 daily riders forecast. The Purple Line follows in 2028, and the Dan metro sits behind both.
THE TIO READ
Stay near HaShalom or Savidor and the country becomes a day-trip: Jerusalem in 35 minutes, Haifa inside the hour, the airport in 15. The Red Line made Jaffa-to-Petah Tikva a tram ride — the Green Line will do the same for the seafront by 2030.
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