The Jezreel Valley railway, or simply the Valley railway (Hebrew: רכבת העמק, Rakevet HaEmek) refers to a historical railroad in Ottoman and British Palestine, which was part of the larger Hejaz railway and ran along the Jezreel Valley.
It was built in the beginning of the 20th century and connected Haifa with the rest of the 1,050 mm (3 ft 5 1⁄3 in) narrow gauge Hejaz railway, its last stop within the Palestine Mandate borders being al-Hamma. After many failed attempts, the final planning and construction lasted 4 years. The railway was inaugurated on October 15, 1905, and operated until 1948.
In the decades since there have been several failed attempts to revive the railway. Finally, a large-scale project to build a new standard gauge railway from Haifa to Beit She'an along roughly the same route as the historical valley railway began in 2011 and is expected to be completed in 2016.
Read more about Jezreel Valley Railway: Impact, Security, Stations, Current Status and Plans
Famous quotes containing the words valley and/or railway:
“Over the mountains of the moon, down the valley of the shadow. Ride, boldly ride, the shade replied, in search of El Dorado.”
—Leigh Brackett (1915–1978)
“Her personality had an architectonic quality; I think of her when I see some of the great London railway termini, especially St. Pancras, with its soot and turrets, and she overshadowed her own daughters, whom she did not understand—my mother, who liked things to be nice; my dotty aunt. But my mother had not the strength to put even some physical distance between them, let alone keep the old monster at emotional arm’s length.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)