In 1900, the German engineer, Heinrich Auguste Meisner, nicknamed 'Meisner Pasha', began building a pretentious train route - a route from Damascus to the holy Muslim cities in the Arabian Peninsula - totaling 1,500 kilometers! He undertook this project by invitation from the Turkish Sultan, Abed el Hamid II.

While laying the train tracks, Meisner thought of another idea: to connect the "Hijazi Railway" with the Mediterranean Sea coast, and create a special branch of the railway so that travelers need not rely on the Damascus - Beirut line, or the Beirut port that was then under French rule.

In 1902, he began planning this 160 kilometer rail line, from Haifa in the West, to Dar'a on the Hijazi line in the East. The route planned to cut through the Jezreel Valley, continue north through the Beit She'an Valley, descend into the Jordan Valley, and climb along the Yarmouk River until Dar'a.

He planned on including the lowest train station on Earth!, near today's Kibbutz Gesher (247 meters below sea level). Surveys were carried out for the proposed route and in 1904, laying down the railway tracks began. In 1905, the job was finished and trains began traveling to the Mediterranean Sea on this Hijazi branch, continuing on to Damascus.

The section that goes through Western Israel, in the Jezreel Valley, quickly became known by its Jewish residents as the "Valley Train" - this train, known for its slow speed, continued running until 1948, and then partially until 1952.