The Israel Railways lost and found is full of various documents, objects, clothes, bags and even musical instruments. The railway has undertaken a campaign to increase passengers’ awareness of the return of losses and calls to passengers who lost items on the train to seek to receive them back.

About 250,000 passengers ride the train daily, and with the onset of winter, the number of items forgotten by trains is significantly increasing. These include ordinary objects such as umbrellas, jackets, passports, purses, glasses, IDF ID cards and more. Along with these objects, objects such as suitcases, laptops, cell phones, batteries for electric bicycles, yoga mats and more are often forgotten on the train. These objects are returned after verifying the identity of their owners. Other special items include African masks from a traveler’s trip from a trip to Africa, art and crafts, many toys and more.

In another case, a passenger lost an engagement ring, a moment before asking his kallah, the loss attendants escorted him until the ring was found (at a train station).

In addition, many soldiers who travel by train, especially on Sundays and Thursdays, lose large military equipment such as ID cards, kitbags, military coats, military boots, uniforms and more. These soldiers often lose hope that these things will be found, and go up to military trial and pay from their pocket while the lost items are waiting unclaimed.

The Israel Railways is currently embarking on a special operation to recover the losses, which will take place between 19 to 23 Shevat 5778. As part of the operation, the activity in the loss warehouse will be increased and additional staff will be working.

The loss warehouse will run continuously from Sunday to Thursday from 8:00 to 20:00, and on Fridays from 8:00 to 12:00.

The Israel Railways losses warehouse is located at the Tel Aviv-Savidor-Central railway station, but the Israel Railways urge travelers who lost items on the train to first contact the customer service center at *5770 and make sure that the object they lost was found and reached the warehouse.

“Many passengers make the mistake of assuming that if they lose something, they will not find it,” noted the customer service unit and the Israel Railways passenger division. “We suggest that passengers do not give up and use our service system if they lose something. We will indeed find him and get him back.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)