Last Tuesday, the Israeli Ministry of Transportation announced that “Netevei Israel”, the company in charge of the eastern railway project which borders Samaria, began laying the tracks in the northern area of ​​the future railway. The Ministry of Transportation also announced that the route should be operational by 2026.

The eastern railway is considered by the Ministry of Transportation to be a huge project, that will greatly benefit both the Arab and Jewish residents of Samaria and the surrounding areas. 65 kilometers of rail route with six stations, two of which will be within Arab-Israeli municipalities. 

The station in the Israeli-Arab city of Taiba, just on the cusp between Samaria and the Sharon region, covers an area of ​​10,000 square meters and will include four platforms for four tracks. It was built on the route of the Ottoman railway that operated in the area up until the end of the British Mandate. Motti Levin, director of the railway construction department in this large-scale project said that when the works began in 2018, there were only fields and dirt paths in the area where a track had once been laid. "The state then decided to focus its efforts on building the coastal railway, most of the old track that was here was dismantled, and people invaded its territory and planted trees. We had to expropriate 20 km for the infrastructure."

A lot of work was invested in the creation of the eastern railway in general and this station in particular, from moving streams that flowed in that direction to creating a water conduit that runs between the tracks and the adjacent Route 6 and directs the rainwater to a stream just to the south of the tracks.

Due to its location, in the northern Sharon and Samaria region, the Taiba station will be the largest of all the stations within the eastern spur of the railway and will be well connected with the existing train lines that crisscross the Jewish State. Trains will depart from the station on the eastern track that will connect to the Sharon region through Bnei Brak. "There is a very big demand for this station from everyone," claimed Levin, "it will connect the entire country in terms of railways together with the entire Eastern Rail project."

According to estimates, the station is expected to be used by thousands of passengers, Arabs, and Jews, during peak hours every day. It seems that it is being built with great consideration for transportation connectivity, as bicycle paths leading to it from the main road in the city can be seen, along with about 1,000 parking spots and a large bus terminal.