(haipo) – The Tel Aviv District Court granted an urgent request by Israel Railways and issued a temporary injunction prohibiting the Kiryat Motzkin Municipality from starting to collect parking fees in two parking lots adjacent to the city’s train station. The parking lots, which were previously established with railway funding for the benefit of the traveling public, were supposed to remain free of charge in accordance with agreements between the parties.
Railway: The municipality violated an express commitment
Israel Railways, through attorneys Ofer Drori and Itzik Doga, claimed that the municipality acted in violation of the financing agreements, in which it pledged not to charge the public for parking. According to the railway, the mayor unilaterally decided to start charging a fee starting April 15, 2026, and even created a distinction between city residents and non-resident passengers.
The court ruled that due to the broad public aspect, a temporary injunction should be issued, and ordered the municipality to submit a response by April 23.
The railway's legal advisor, Attorney Hanna Zichel, said that the railway "sees it as an obligation to prevent harm to the public of train passengers and to collect a fee for parking," and emphasized that the parking lots were built with an investment of millions of shekels from public funds. According to her, the municipality's intention "created a justified public protest," and the railway will continue to act to prevent harm to the service.
Mayor Tsiki Avissar: "I have canceled night fines of 250 shekels"
Mayor of Kiryat Motzkin, Tsiki Avishar, He responded sharply: "For years, the arrangement in the train parking lots was a nightly fine of 250 shekels and a complete ban on overnight parking. In other words, residents of the Krayot, and Motzkin among them, could not use the train for night shifts at the industrial plants in Mifratz, in Bazan, at Rambam Hospital and Bnei Zion, in the center of the country."
Anyone who wanted to go to Ben Gurion Airport for the weekend and parked their car in the train parking lot would be fined 250 shekels per night. So if it's 3 nights: 750 shekels. If it's a week, then 1,750 shekels.
"I opposed this oppressive arrangement and canceled it immediately after I was elected. I worked to reach an understanding with the railway on an alternative arrangement of 50 shekels per year for unlimited parking. It is not clear to me why the railway opposed the proposed arrangement, which is much more reasonable than a nightly fine of 250 shekels per night, which the railway allowed but opposes the municipality's outline of 50 shekels per year."
What next?
The temporary order will remain in effect until the next hearing, when the court will examine the arguments of both parties. In the meantime, parking in the train parking lots in Kiryat Motzkin will remain free.
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But if the parking lot was built with the railway's investment and is intended to be used by its passengers, then there is no justification for discrimination between Motzkin residents and non-residents.
Israel Railways encourages traffic jams. Encourages private cars. Has wasted tens or hundreds of millions of shekels of public money to arrange parking lots instead of working to strengthen public transportation to and from the stations. Has caused damage to urban infrastructure around every train station by residents entering from surrounding communities – who, once there is a parking lot, of course, will not seek to reach the stations by public transportation. In doing so, it has turned the area around the stations into asphalt beds and beds of vehicles that are dumped for many hours. On the Carmel Beach, this is a real hazard with about 3000 vehicles trying to enter and exit every day and harming the city's residents due to the congestion at the entrances to the beach parking lots. It has also damaged the beach environment, which has turned from peace and quiet into huge parking lots and sirens from traffic jams.
The damage caused by Israel Railways must be a subject of nationwide public debate and a fee must be charged for every parking space because land is a resource like any other resource. Just because you bought a car doesn't mean that your roads and parking lots are free. The costs from the damage caused by the private car culture are enormous and are passed on to all taxpayers, so that the public without cars is harmed twice. There is also no sufficient investment for them in alternatives to cars and public transportation, and their taxes also go to finance free parking lots for car owners.
This is not a matter for the courts. This must be a matter for the Ministry of Transportation. Charge a parking fee at all train parking lots. Stop the pirate parking of vehicles that block pedestrian sidewalks, especially around the stations - also a real danger to public safety, traffic jams, and more. It's time to stop this at the beach parking lots in Haifa. Charge a fee for every entrance to the beaches, as they do in Tel Aviv at the beach estate parking lots. A reduced fee for Haifa residents who finance the promenades and beaches. And all the rest from outside pay full price.