Israel Railways Threatens Better Rail App as Holiday Schedule Errors Exposed

The developer of the free train-tracking application Better Rail, Guy Teper, recently revealed that Israel Railways sent a cease-and-desist letter threatening legal action. The state-owned railway company demanded the app be removed from app stores, alleging unauthorized commercial use of its data.

Israel Railways claimed that unlike authorized navigation apps such as Moovit, which receive raw data through the Ministry of Transportation, Better Rail automatically and continuously scraped data directly from the railway's APIs and databases. The legal letter also alleged that the app bypassed technological blocks and security controls, using an unauthorized access key, which they argue constitutes illegal computer intrusion under Israeli law.

The Data Discrepancy Dispute

In response to the legal threat, Guy Teper argued that the official data provided by the Ministry of Transportation—which powers major platforms like Google Maps and Moovit—is frequently outdated, directly harming passengers. According to Teper, the most accurate and real-time schedules are only available directly on the Israel Railways website.

In its official response, Israel Railways stated:

"The complete and comprehensive information regarding train services, schedules, routes, and all passenger service aspects is published for anyone on the Israel Railways website and official app, meeting the strictest data security, cyber, accessibility, and service standards required of critical infrastructure."\n> \n> "Any initiatives wishing to use our databases must do so in an orderly fashion, as was proposed to this specific venture, through the Ministry of Transportation database, similar to other applications and services."

Following the public disclosure of the dispute on social media platform X, Better Rail received widespread public support, resulting in over 20,000 downloads within a single week.

Holiday Schedule Failures

Now, Teper explains that Better Rail has been forced to resume scraping data directly from Israel Railways servers due to a severe data error regarding the Rosh Hashanah holiday schedule. While the official Israel Railways website displayed a special holiday schedule, the Ministry of Transportation's database transmitted a standard Sunday schedule to public transit apps.

Teper stated:

"Due to the severity of the issue, we decided to resume pulling correct data directly from Israel Railways servers. We contacted both the Ministry of Transportation and Israel Railways for an urgent correction of this discrepancy, which affects every public transit app in the country."

According to Teper, the Ministry of Transportation distributes massive data files ten days in advance, which contained the outdated schedule. He noted that he received no response from the ministry.

A test conducted on Google Maps for a trip on Sunday afternoon, September 13, between the Hashalom station in Tel Aviv and the Yitzhak Navon station in Jerusalem, displayed incorrect train options, even though trains were not scheduled to run until after the holiday. Moovit also displayed incorrect data earlier in the day before updating its system with a link to the railway's official schedule. The incorrect schedule was also found on the official website of the National Public Transport Authority.

The Ministry of Transportation stated that the matter is currently under review.

Better Rail released a statement saying:

"We were deeply moved by the public support, and we will continue to fight for better service and reliable information for public transit passengers. Our main goal is for the Ministry of Transportation and Israel Railways to resolve their discrepancies. This is not just a Better Rail issue—any passenger relying on public transit apps in Israel could be affected by these gaps."