Railway to Kiryat Shmona: Are there already works on the ground?

True - The statement is true in its vast majority.

Not accurate - Substantial parts of the statement are incorrect.

Misleading - The statement creates a false impression or takes facts out of context.

False - The statement is incorrect.

For your judgment - The factual situation is too complex to give a definitive grade.

Check Summary

Claim: There is already drilling in Kiryat Shmona as part of the construction of the railway line to the city.

What is true:

1. A few months ago, trial drilling and preliminary works began on the railway route to Kiryat Shmona.

2. In parallel, additional planning procedures were completed.

Grade: True

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Minister of Transport Miri Regev achieved a nice result in the Likud primaries, reaching fourth place. This, according to her, is despite the media downplaying her achievements. In an interview with Kan Bet, she mentioned one of them: "I led the move for the Kiryat Shmona-Eilat railway," she said, emphasizing that it is not just plans on paper: "It is progressing, there is already drilling in Kiryat Shmona." Have the drilling rigs really started to rumble in Kiryat Shmona?

After years of talk, at the end of July 2023, Government Decision 855 was passed, which ordered the promotion of a multi-year plan to connect Israel with a railway network from Kiryat Shmona to Eilat by 2040. In August 2025, the Ministry of Transport, Netivei Israel, and Israel Railways announced the start of the Tel Aviv - Kiryat Shmona railway execution.

In practice, this involves the construction of a double-track electrified passenger and freight railway from Karmiel to Kiryat Shmona, with a route length of about 55 km, which includes 3 new passenger stations - Karmiel East, TzaHar (Tzfat, Hatzor, Rosh Pinna), and Kiryat Shmona, and a tunnel about 22 km long under the Tzfat mountains.

Works on the ground

Netivei Israel confirmed that for several months, trial drilling and preliminary works have been carried out in Kiryat Shmona. In parallel, Netivei Israel completed the work of the advisory committee on expropriations, and the project is moving towards the judging committee. Significant progress has also been made in the field of infrastructure coordination.

However, it is important to note that these "trial drillings" are still a very early stage of the project. The establishment of an infrastructure project in Israel is divided into several stages, the first of which is "promoting availability" - moving infrastructure to clear the area for construction. The current drilling is part of this stage, and its purpose is to map the soil and rock layers along the route to create a basis for planning complex sections.

The start of construction works ("Infra 1") and works for system integration and track laying ("Infra 2") happen only later. The project is still in relatively early stages, and we have not yet reached the truly great engineering challenges, such as mining giant tunnels in the Galilee.

Bottom line: Regev's words are true. Drilling works are indeed taking place on the railway route to Kiryat Shmona as part of the project.

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Ministry of Transport response:

"As part of the 'Connecting Israel' vision led by the Minister of Transport, Miri Regev, the Ministry of Transport is vigorously promoting the connection of the railway between Karmiel and Kiryat Shmona, a national and strategic project. After decades in which the connection remained mainly on paper, for the first time, actual works are being carried out on the ground. The claim that this is a marginal scope of work is baseless and stems from a lack of understanding of how complex transport projects are promoted. The Ministry has allocated all the budgets required for the promotion of the project, with funds being transferred according to the progress in the execution stages."