[3] In the 1860s the deputy British consul in Haifa, Thomas B. Sandwit, proposed the construction of a railway from the city to Baghdad, through the Jezreel Valley, with a possible extension to Damascus.

Sir Laurence Oliphant of Britain, who hoped to facilitate Jewish settlement in the Gilead, proposed the creation of a railway from Haifa to that region, which would then branch out to Aqaba in the south, and Damascus in the north.

Elias did not have the ability to gather the funds necessary for such a project, and it was agreed that he would buy out Shukri's share and sell the rights to John Robert Pilling, a British entrepreneur.

[7][8] Work on the line was opposed by the Chémin de Fer Damas–Hama et Prolongements (DHP), a standard gauge railway that carried freight between Damascus and Hama.

At the same time, the DHP petitioned the Ottoman government for its own permit to build a railway from Beirut to the Hauran via Damascus, eventually attaining it.

Originally, the line was meant to climb the Golan Heights next to the Samakh Stream, although later it was decided that the Yarmouk River would make a better route.

The Hejaz railway was built for ideological, religious, and to a lesser extent military needs, and the Ottoman authorities initially underutilized its potential as a commercial venue.

A notable package was a trip using the valley line from Haifa to Samakh, where the tourists would take a steam boat to Tiberias via the Sea of Galilee and explore the Christian holy sites around the lake.

When the line became popular with tourists, the travel conditions were improved in order to make a good first impression to dignitaries and aristocrats from all over Europe.

During World War I, the southward connection became essential for supplying the troops in the Sinai Peninsula, so from January 1915, the construction continued, reaching Nablus in the spring of 1915.

Due to the severe lack of modern infrastructure in the Middle East during the war, the few railways in the region were of vital strategic importance to the Ottomans.

More extensions to the line were built as a result, for the efficient transport of wood—one from Tulkarm to the forest of Hadera, and another to the Menashe Heights on the slopes of Mount Carmel near Umm al-Fahm.

As these operations went on, the number of natural forests in Palestine dwindled, and the authorities ordered the cutting down of every tenth fruit-bearing tree to support the war effort.

On March 2, 1948, Haganah forces carried out bombing raids on railways in Mandate Palestine to disable them and prevent the quick transport of supplies and personnel by the Arab armies about to invade the Yishuv.

The next major hit came on the eve of the Israeli declaration of independence, May 14, 1948, when Jewish forces destroyed a bridge on the Jordan River, next to Gesher.

The remains of the railway station at Mas'udiya, originally the three-way junction on the Afula–Nablus–Tulkarm branch line, was the location chosen by Gush Emunim for the first Israeli settlement in Samaria.

The Jewish sector in Mandate Palestine was the other main user of the railway, which allowed it to build new villages in relatively remote areas in the Jezreel Valley.

The main building was inaugurated in 1908; its architectural style was similar to that of railway stations in southern Germany at the time, including also some Ottoman elements.

The surviving section is used today as an office building by Israel Railways, while the station does not serve as a stop for passenger trains anymore.

This station, also called Al Roy in English, was built next to the Kishon River (a wadi) to serve residents of moshav Elro'i, today part of Kiryat Tiv'on.

Similar to the Elro'i station, Kiryat Haroshet was a small shed meant only to protect passengers from rough weather conditions.

[21] Today, the remnants of the bridge, destroyed on May 14, 1948, as well as two wooden train cars can be seen from the Gesher kibbutz, beyond the border fence although technically on Israeli territory.

While located within the borders of what was then defined as Palestine, it was relatively isolated, and could not serve as a major transportation hub and gateway to Syria, a function that was performed by the Tzemah Station.

On June 13, 1962, talks were held between the CEO of Israel Railways Menachem Savidor and head of the Afula local council Yoash Dubnov.

Several years later, major foreign investment began flowing into the country following the worldwide early 2000s recession, which prompted resuming discussions about renewing the valley railway, which has regional importance for transporting goods to and from parts of Israel and Jordan via rail links for export/import through Israeli seaports on the Mediterranean sea.

Israel Railways also proposed a completely new route to connect the Beit She'an station to Jordan, via the Sheikh Hussein bridge, as well as a future revival of the historical extension to Jenin to serve the Palestinian Authority.

The original plans to build a full dual-track railway in the initial phase were scrapped in favor of single-track for most of the route (between Nesher and Beit She'an).

[30] On March 7, 2011, the National Roads Authority, which was in charge of managing the project, published a design-build tender for a 6.5 km section of the line near Afula.

[32] It is planned that in the future, the railway will be extended from Beit She'an to the Jordan River border crossing at the Sheikh Hussein bridge.

This extension will require significant tunneling and bridging in order to overcome the steep elevation changes of the Jordan Rift Valley, costing an estimated NIS 2 billion for the proposed 15 km route.