Ashkelon railway station

Ashkelon אשקלון
Israel Railways
General information
Location	Adjacent to "Cosmos" shopping center, Kefar Silver Junction, Ashkelon
Coordinates	31°40′35″N 34°36′16″E / 31.67639°N 34.60444°E / 31.67639; 34.60444
Platforms	2
Tracks	4
Construction
Parking	150 spaces
Bicycle facilities	5 spaces
Accessible	Yes
History
Opened	March 1917; 107 years ago (1917-03)
Closed	1948–1972, 1973–2005
Rebuilt	April 2005
Electrified	25 December 2021; 2 years ago (2021-12-25)
Previous names	1917–1948: Majdal
Passengers
2019	3,005,131[1]
Rank	13 out of 68

v t e Binyamina/Netanya – Rehovot/Be'er Sheva line
Legend
to Haifa, Nahariya, Beit She'an & Karmiel Binyamina Caesarea–Pardes Hanna Hadera–West Netanya Netanya–Sapir Beit Yehoshua Highway 20 to Ra'anana Herzliya to Hod HaSharon & Lod Tel Aviv–University Tel Aviv–Savidor Central Tel Aviv–HaShalom Tel Aviv–HaHagana to Rishon LeZion–Dayan & Ashdod to Ben Gurion Airport, Modi'in Central & Jerusalem Kfar Chabad Lod to Be'er Sheva & Jerusalem–Malha Be'er Ya'akov to Rishon LeZion–HaRishonim Rehovot Yavne–East to Rishon LeZion–Dayan & Tel Aviv Ashdod–Ad Halom Ashkelon Sderot Netivot Ofakim to Kiryat Gat & Lod Be'er Sheva–North to Dimona Be'er Sheva–Center
Israel Rail Lines Map

The Ashkelon railway station is a railway station that is located in Ashkelon, Israel. It is the southern terminus of the Binyamina–Tel Aviv–Ashkelon and the Ra'anana-Rishon LeZion-Ashkelon suburban lines. Previously, Majdal railway station, built by the British forces during World War I, has existed at the site, and since 1920, the station served regular passenger trains between El Kantara, Egypt and Haifa. During 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the connection to Gaza Strip and Egypt was severed, but freight service on the Lod–Ashkelon railway continued.^[2]

In 2002 it was decided to double-track the Ashdod–Ashkelon railway and recommence the passenger service to Ashkelon. Some of the remains of the old British station were demolished as part of preparing the site. The new Ashkelon passenger station was opened in 2005. Later, a new railway north of Ashkelon was constructed between Rishon LeZion and Ashdod Ad Halom railway station. This new line was inaugurated on 4 August 2013 and significantly shortened the travel time from Ashdod and Ashkelon to Tel Aviv to 35 and 45 minutes respectively.

The railway line south of the station was extended to Beersheba beginning in 2006, which enabled rail service to the towns of Sderot, Ofakim and Netivot in the northern Negev. The line was completed in 2015.

In late 2021 an NIS 15 million renovation project at the station was completed. The works included preservation of some of the station's original early 20th-century structures. At the same time, the station also underwent electrification.

The station complex also houses a large electric multiple unit train maintenance depot that was completed in 2021.