Hadera–East railway station

For the currently open railway station in Hadera, see Hadera West railway station.

Hadera East railway station תחנת הרכבת חדרה מזרח
The derelict station in 2017
General information
Location	Tzahal Street, Hadera
Coordinates	32°26′46″N 34°57′00″E
Owned by	Israel Railways
Line(s)	Eastern Railway
Platforms	1
Tracks	2
History
Opened	1920
Closed	1968

Hadera East railway station is a former railway station in Hadera, Israel, the original north terminus of the Eastern Railway. In 1968, the line was closed to passengers, and the southbound track to Kfar Saba dismantled. As of 2017, the section between Hadera West and Hadera East still remains in use by freight trains serving the large Granot "Ambar North" feed mill complex adjacent to Hadera East station.

History

During the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of World War I, the Ottoman authorities in Palestine constructed the railway between the Jezreel Valley railway in Afula southwards via Jenin and Tulkarm to Lydda, where it connected to the Jaffa–Jerusalem railway and the Railway to Beersheba. The northwards extension from Tulkarm to Hadera allowed transporting timber from the forests around Hadera that was used as fuel and for infrastructure. The line was built as narrow gauge (1050 mm) like the rest of the Ottoman railways in the region, and was situated relatively inland to avoid the reach of naval guns from Royal Navy warships patrolling the Mediterranean coast.

The station building in 1946

After the British conquered the area, they converted the Eastern Railway to standard gauge and extended it further northwards, connecting Haifa with Lydda for onward journey west to Jaffa, east to Jerusalem, or south via Gaza City to El Kantara, Egypt. Prior to the construction of this new line, the only southbound connection from Haifa was the Jezreel Valley railway via Afula. Hadera East halt was constructed by Palestine Railways as part of this new line; it opened in 1920 at a location 1½ miles north-east from the town, and was served by buses from Hadera, Pardes Hanna and Karkur. Until the 1940s, the halt didn't include any facilities for waiting passengers, not even a canopy.

The Tehran Children -- a group of 1230 Jewish refugees from Poland, mostly children, who escaped in 1939 to USSR, then in 1942 to Iran, then brought by the Jewish Agency for Israel by sea to Suez, and from there on a train to the Yishuv -- stopped at the Hadera East station on February 18, 1943, and a festive greeting was arranged for the children.

The remains of the British station building in 2015

The new Coastal railway line was constructed during the early 1950s, and shortened the rail journey between Haifa and Tel Aviv from 1 hour and 20 minutes to just over 1 hour. The new railway line diverged from the old one at the Remez railway junction near Pardes Hanna, about 2.5 km north of Hadera East, which meant that Hadera East could not be served by the new passenger service between Haifa and Tel Aviv. In order for the new passenger service to include Hadera, the new Hadera West railway station, built 5 km south of the Remez junction and 5 km west of the old railway station, opened to passengers in 1957. Nevertheless, some passenger and freight service via Hadera East continued until 1968, when the passenger service between Haifa and Jerusalem ended, the station closed, the railway track south of it got abandoned, and was later dismantled.

Future plans

The government of Israel announced plans to revive the Eastern Railway at a projected cost of NIS 8 billion (appx. US$ 2.2 billion), reinstating a service from Haifa via Hadera and Kfar Saba to Lod which would bypass the congested Coastal railway. Out of the projected amount, NIS 50 million would fund the creation of a new Hadera East station, which would likely be relocated in order to preserve the historic British buildings. A branch line, dubbed "Iron Railway", would connect the new Hadera East station with the new Afula station on the reconstructed Jezreel Valley railway. However, construction of either the new Eastern Railway or the Iron Railway is not expected to start before 2020.