They did, at least in Israel. The Jerusalem-Beit Shemesh route was restored and it is a beautiful commute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_urfQTLk_g
The author says that the line closed in March 2020, but maybe it has since been reopened?
Anyway, live close by.
The train station at Malha was closed 2020 because of COVID because it was a scenic/tourist route. There was discussion of shutting it down permanently but it didn't happen. I used to take it every week for a coding-teaching gig 5 years ago.
It will likely either reopen when tourism reaches a pre-covid level in a year or two or will be converted to a light-rail station.
This railway is on my visit list. I hope that tourism recovers enough for it to reopen.
If you look hard enough you will find my contributions in early-mid newgrounds (inglor day, zombie inglor, the inglor dance and 10k bbs posts :))
Anyway - good taste and nice to meet