Lod–Ashkelon railway

The main Turkish objective in the Middle East during World War I was to either capture or disable the Suez Canal, which would have put the British Empire at a great disadvantage.

[1] After his assault on the British garrison along the canal in January–February 1915, Jamal Pasha enlisted the help of the German engineer Heinrich August Meissner, who also planned the Hejaz Railway, to help him find a more efficient method of logistics.

When the British captured the territory in 1918, they dismantled both "Egyptian Branch" railways, save for a short section between Beit Hanoun and Majdal.

This 13-km-long section was converted into 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge and later incorporated into the new Palestine Railways main line, which opened to passenger service on 1 November 1920, and linked El Kantara, Egypt via Gaza City, Majdal (Ashkelon), Lydda and Hadera to Haifa.

A whole new, much more direct, standard gauge railway section was built from Majdal via Isdud (Ashdod) and Yibna (Yavne) to Lydda; one of the purposes for the new route was to enable shipment of citrus fruits from orchards around Rehovot to the port of Haifa.

This branch line is out of use since 2000, when a pier was built at the power station to allow unloading the coal directly from the ships.