Report from an English-Israeli tourist

[daveklepper]

Note correction in the previous post after checking the timetable.

Apologies for the error.

[daveklepper]

Good questions.   The longest run of one train is from Beir Sheva in the south (connection further south to Demona) to Naharia near the Lebanese border in the north.  You can check the timetable on the internet, just Google Israel Railways and you'll get the website with an English option.   The timetable is now configured so everything on the same page, one half of the pages north to south and one half of the pages south to north, laid out in time, each requiring several pages.  I don't have it in front of me, and lack the time to pull it up right now, but I would say that longest run, express between Tel Aviv and Haifa, local elsewhere, is about three hours, perhaps a few minutes more.   No sleeping cars at the present time.

When trains were slower, there was cafe-car service, both tables and a counter.  Now there is only rolling-cart snack service, if any.  I have not even come across that on my recent very short train trips, but then I have ridden express T. A. - Haifa in some time.  There are good restaurants in the main stations or very close by, which I have enjoyed.

Now for some corrections.  Of course Steve boarded the Coast Starlight at Redding after a bus connection from Eureka.  And he is from Australia, not England!

[54light15]

Is there dining car and sleeper service in Israel? How long would the longest run be? All I know of rail service in the Middle East is from Lawrence of Arabia. 

[Miningman]

Correct! Not fancy smancy high end expensive novelty fadish service either. $50.00 roomettes, lots of them and fast frequent convenient trains.

You can get 'em in the dining car, if applicable. Charge to real costs and a profit. Throw whiners off the train, goodbye, don't let the door hit you in head on your way out..same guys gladly pay through the nose at football/baseball games for a brewski and fat foods. 

Advertise the rooms...bring your honey along. Best thing ever!

Anyone flying 200-300 miles is nuts, not thinking straight. 

 

[daveklepper]

Steve Sattler lives in Jerusalem.  I emailed him pdfs of The Mentor, Stuyvasent Fish, and the Fontaine locomotive.  He then sent the following to other members of the Jerusalem railfan club:

Dear all, 
Those of us who grew up under the GREAT BRITISH EMPIRE Umbrella recognize that the Brits got the RAILWAY idea going and even invented the concept:

But, these revolting Colonialists -over there in the Americas--  quickly grabbed the basic concept and like a run-away infection --were soon building metal-rails across their East Coast and then even across the mass of the USA to California.

From 1826 onwards [in Massachusetts], the American entrepreneurs were building railroads and moving [at a profit] granite, ore,  goods and people.

By 1829, It was normal to be a passenger on a train -on the USA East Coast.

Dave- [yes: he is an American]  has sent us some nice HISTORIC stuff about American railroads.

Today-in the USA-railroads are very important as a FREIGHT system, and thousands of miles of track are in use.[One expert has said that 20% of all track is NOT in use].

The future must bring a re-birth of a good passenger TRAIN system -across America --on quality rail tracks  and even at high speed. It has become ridiculous that passengers that want to travel from one CITY to another [just 200 kilometers away] usually fly-- and waste 3 hours at each end with security, parking and just standing in queues.  Most cities have a main-train terminus in the city -center-which is very very under-used!

Similarly:  Over-night Hotel trains are badly used and need to be "advertised" better. 

[I was on an over-night Amtrak from Eureka in Northen California -2 years ago--to San Diego, through LA. and I got a good nights sleep and two KOSHER meals on the train. It was great, and not expensive.  (I lost my $50 camera on the train and the insurance paid me $185 compensation)

Please read the three pdfs that David has sent.

Steve