On Sunday, the CEO of Israel Railways, Michael Maixner, announced that he would be stepping down within a few months. Maixner’s announcement came against the background of the attempts by Israel Railways chairperson Moshe Shimoni to remove him almost ever since Shimoni was appointed to his post by Minister of Transport Miri Regev in her previous stint in that role. Maixner will reach the end of his term, but the process that has accompanied his departure is worrying, and the bad news is not just for Israel Railways and for the country’s stressed transport system, but for the public service in general.
In 2018, the previous CEO of Israel Railways resigned at the height of a confrontation with then minister of transport Israel Katz, over delays in the opening of the fast rail link between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. After a few months, Maixner was given the job, and his time in it has been characterized by three main trends.
The first is the rehabilitation of government ministries’ confidence in Israel Railways, after a period in which projects were taken away from the company, ministries thought it incapable of carrying out infrastructure work, service deteriorated, and breakdowns multiplied. Confidence was restored to such an extent that the new development program for the railway system included NIS 48 billion for track infrastructure projects.
A second trend is the speeding up of infrastructure work. Israel Railways is working on a track alongside Road 431, on a fourth track along the Ayalon together with Netivei Israel, and on the eastern track from Hadera to Lod. Its flagship project is the electrification of the railways, an especially important project, since it enables Israel Railways to become equipped with new electric rolling stock and thus reduce breakdowns and delays. Maixner succeeded in shortening this project by six years, and it is expected to be completed in 2024. Before he took up the CEO post, the government had approved a new date for completion of 2030. At the same time, Israel Railways has accelerated a plan to lengthen platforms so that longer trains will be able to use them. It has upgraded stations, constructed awnings to shade them, and made them accessible to people with disabilities.
The third trend is improvement in service to passengers. Although the infrastructure projects significantly harmed punctuality and availability of service, the delays and breakdowns were substantially reduced by the use of standby trains at key stations throughout the system. Within the past few months, Israel Railways signed a new operating agreement with the state, representing another vote of confidence in it, and also a collective agreement with the workers committee, one of the more militant committees in the public service.
None of this helped. Maixner is probably one of the most talented CEOs that government infrastructure companies have seen in recent years, but that was not enough. Almost from the first moment, Regev’s chief of staff, Moshe Ben-Zaken, took it upon himself personally to see to the removal of the CEO. Ben-Zaken has meanwhile been appointed deputy director general of the Ministry of Transport, and he is Regev’s candidate for director general. Shimoni was also dissatisfied. According to him, there were professional shortcomings in procurement of rolling stock, and the way goods trains and real estate developments were dealt with, but the professionals in the government ministries rebutted all the allegations.
The Government Companies Authority said that firing Maixner would unsettle the company, and Ministry of Finance representatives expressed unequivocal opposition to the chairperson’s attempts to remove him, but they were not even permitted to present their stance at a board of directors meeting. Sources in the industry say that the attempts to remove Maixner arose because of his refusal to appoint people that Regev wanted in Israel Railways’ top management. Shimoni denies this.
The tragedy is not just the fact that some NIS 70 billion that Israel Railways will deal with in the coming decades are at stake, and it is not clear who will manage this investment, and whether he or she can both have the required professional qualifications for the job and also suit Regev and her minions at Israel Railways. The tragedy is not just Maixner, the railway system, and its ability to help deal with the transport crisis holding back Israel’s economy if a sufficiently professional appointment is not made. The tragedy is also the message: you can be a successful manager, talented and highly regarded, but if your face doesn’t fit as far as the minister and her people are concerned, you’re out.
The message is a black flag waving not just over Israel Railways headquarters at Lod, but over the entire public service. Why would anyone risk their professional reputation just to reach a position in which professionalism is ignored and the criterion of success is personal loyalty? The message that these actions are liable to send to the public is that the era in which professionals could argue and act as checks and balances in decision making, and exhibit a strong, professional backbone, is over.
What talented, professional will want to head Israel Railways? And who will want to head the NTA Metropolitan Mass Transit System after Regev put the boot into it, when she publicly declared her intention of stripping it of the Metro project before she informed the company’s management of that, and sent a message to the infrastructures market that nothing should be expected of this company?
Wil this message, which threatens to paralyze the professional capabilities of the public service and drown it in mediocrity, remain within the confines of transport and infrastructure? Or will it be noted by everyone considering a senior public service career for the sake of the goal and not for the sake of the politicians?
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on May 16, 2023.
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