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Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet leaders of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism and Shas parties today, in an attempt to smooth over a sharp disagreement over work on Israel’s railway system during the Jewish Sabbath.

Netanyahu is set to sit down with Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, who heads Shas, and Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, plus Finance Committee Chairman MK Moshe Gafni, both of United Torah Judaism (UTJ).

Last week, they expressed deep concern over a renovation at the Hashalom train station in Tel Aviv, which sits atop a major traffic junction. In order to minimize disruption to commuters, the work was carried out over the weekend, the Jewish Sabbath. Public displays of respect for the Jewish Sabbath are a source of tension between the ultra-Orthodox parties and much of the rest of the political establishment.

The three ultra-Orthodox leaders sent Netanyahu a letter last week, in which they said “we cannot bear responsibility for a government that publicly tramples the sanctity of the Sabbath,” in what some considered a veiled threat to leave the government.

In advance of today’s meeting, the CEO of Israel Railways sent a letter to the Director General of the Transport Ministry, warning that preventing such work on the Sabbath would have a high financial price and cause enormous disruption. He suggested that it would delay the opening of the high-speed Tel Aviv-Jerusalem rail link by two years.

Gafni commented yesterday evening that the letter demonstrated that “all they really care about is saving money”. It is thought that the ultra-Orthodox leaders will seek to discuss not only the railway renovations, but other public works taking place on the Sabbath.

YNet, however, quoted an unnamed associate close to Netanyahu who said: “This is not expected to develop into a coalition crisis.”