The High Court of Justice rejected last night (Sunday, 4/7/2021) a petition against the splitting of the plan to double the railway in Haifa - Subsection 65 (plans for national infrastructures). Despite the rejection, the responding bodies (among them Israel Railways, the Municipality of Haifa and the Ministry of Transportation) stated that they would examine the various alternatives proposed for the plan, as part of the objections to the plan.
The panel of the hearing, which was held on Thursday 1/7/2021, included President Esther Hayut, Judge Anat Baron and Judge David Mintz. The petition was submitted by the Three Sycamore Association - the association for the promotion of life and the environment in the Western Galilee, the architect Micha Ratner, who was represented by attorney Alice Goldman, and a number of councils in the northern region. The other petitioners were represented by attorney Dvir Langer. The petitioners demanded to make their voices heard against the idea of sinking the railway near the seashore in Haifa, and in favor of examining alternatives proposed by them as a solution to the railway problem in the city.
Attorney Dvir Langer told Lahi Fa - the news corporation:
The court expressly states that the respondents will have to refer to and examine the alternative plans that we presented as part of the objections procedure. The fact that the court specifically referred to the examination of the alternatives also in "economic" aspects is particularly important to us, since the alternatives proposed by us generate a much more significant economic-transportation benefit than those proposed by Israel Railways and Vatel.
The proposed tunnel alternative
Attorney Dvir Langer, who has been active for a long time in the fight against the sinking of the train along the current route, proposed several alternatives. As part of alternative 9, a pair of tunnels should be dug between Kiryat al-Halamet (where a new train station will be built instead of Haifa - the center of the eight) and a new train station that will be built nearby to the Sami Ofer Stadium ("Haifa South") with the length of each tunnel being 5.5 km and another pair of tunnels (Shidra Tunnel) between the Gulf Central Station and the "Haifa South" station with the length of each tunnel being 6.5 km. A total of 24 km must be excavated of tunnels.

Adv. Langer presents another alternative (number 11), in which the "Haifa South" station will be built in the area of the Sami Ofer Stadium instead of the Haifa - HaCarmel Beach station, and an 8 km long winding tunnel will be dug to the Kiryat Havlat station and Haifa Mizrah, and will serve as a docking station for trains.

Attorney Langer explains that the plan to expand the Haifa - Carmel Beach station is bad for a number of reasons:
- Adding rails will come at the expense of coastal areas.
- Development of coastal neighborhoods will suffer because the tracks are not expected to go underground anytime soon.
- During the expansion of the station, MTAM activity will be affected and limited.
According to Langer, the Shidra tunnel which will be suitable for extremely fast trains (250 km/h) will allow the passenger to reach Tel Aviv from the heart of the bay in about half an hour. He also believes that "alternative 9a will lead to a huge development of Haifa and the entire north, while completely clearing the tracks from the coastal area".
On the other hand, Israel Railways presented two of its own alternatives to the problem of trains passing through Haifa:
- Alternative 101 - the construction of the Sdera tunnel and in addition the tunnel of the existing tracks from the Carmel beach, through Bat Galim (Kiryat Eliezer) to Kiryat Havlat (where a station will be built instead of the Haifa station - the center of Hasmona). The cost of the program is estimated at 13.1 billion NIS.
- Alternative 102A - a tunnel of the existing and new tracks in a curved route around the Carmel ridge at a short distance from the coast. The tunnels will go from the Carmel beach through Bat Galim (Kiryat Eliezer) to Kiryat Yavlat. The length of each tunnel is 8.5 km, and therefore 34 km must be mined. The cost of the program is estimated at 11.7 billion NIS.


The history of the settlement plan and the fight against it
In February 2010, the Israeli government approved a decision according to which a "transportation infrastructure avenue" will be established. In 2013, the residents of the North presented an alternative to the National Infrastructures Committee (VTL) according to which a tunnel would be dug for the train, which would cross Carmel from the Check Post intersection and reach the Carmel Castle area.
In July 2014, the government approved Subtal (Plan for National Infrastructures) 65. As part of the plan, two railways will be added to the existing two between the Gulf Central and the Sharon Railway.
In 2015, an agreement was signed between the then mayor of Haifa, Yona Yahav, and the then minister of finance, Moshe Kahlon, according to which the railway in Haifa would be sunk at a cost of NIS 1.3 billion. Today's mayor of Haifa, Einat Kalish Rotem, then an opposition member of the city council, believed that " If the settlement agreement goes through, we may find ourselves in the future with four tracks with shore power. It may be that this solution will cripple Haifa." She also believes that neighborhoods in the sea area, with low socioeconomic status, will develop if access to the sea is opened to them.
In 2018, it was decided in the Vethal that as part of doubling the tracks, the buffer would be removed from the Haifa beaches.
In 2019, Subtal 65 was split into two phases and thus the removal of the rail buffer was postponed until an unknown date.
In July 2020, an inter-ministerial forum, which combines bodies dealing with the issue, including the Ministry of Transportation, Israel Railways and the Haifa Municipality, recommended an alternative in which two suburban railways and two high-speed railways would be paved, in tunnels dug from the Hiram Bridge to Carmel Beach. The cost of the program is estimated at 13 billion NIS.
It should be mentioned that the mayor of Haifa, Kalish Rotem, supported the sinking of the rail passing through Haifa, like her predecessor in the position of Yona Yahav. Kalish even supported the doubling of the track that runs through the Haifa area, but due to her demand to move the track underground, the Ministry of Transportation decided to double the track from the south to the Haifa station - HaCarmel Beach.
In any case, doubling the tracks and placing electric poles along their entire length in order to electrify them, will result in the disconnection of Haifa's coastal neighborhoods from the sea area, and will prevent the development of urban renewal plans. Opponents of the existing train route also claim that placing the electricity poles on the tracks will spoil the view to the sea.
The whole approach is not correct - first of all to sign with the developers on projects for the evacuation of construction in the coastal neighborhoods - monstrous construction in high density is very difficult in the absence of profitability - since there are harmful railway lines - only then the elimination of the harmful railway lines while enriching the pockets of the entrepreneurs and, as usual, those respectable and respected people who produce the The planning move and those responsible for its promotion - that way everyone will be satisfied in the end - with the exception of the beaten and bruised residents - who, as we know, are of no interest to anyone - the main thing is that the right parties cut the coupon - and the city will become a slams monster - as is appropriate and suitable for the time in which we live
The Menashe railway should be promoted and the construction of the train that will be a replacement for the trip to the center from the center of the Gulf via the Kahis Railway 6 should be promoted and the train from the heart of the Gulf to Carmel Beach can be completely canceled and replaced by a light/metro train only that will do the same job even so the speed of the train from the heart of the Gulf to Carmel is lousy And she doesn't go over 60.
The Menasha Railway is supposed to take a passenger by train from the heart of the Gulf to the Kesem train station near Petach Tikva in only half an hour!!!
There will be no subsidence of the rails due to groundwater near the beaches and the oil pipeline line. The train knows this and deliberately misleads the municipality of Haifa so that it will not be pressed on the train tunnel.
A tunnel would create a shortcut for the residents of the north and free up all the beaches of Haifa and the lower city for construction in front of the sea and generate tens of billions of shekels in profit from improving the land for construction after the removal of the tracks.
Just crying for generations.
Neither subsidence nor the perpetuation of the railway hazards with the addition of rails and electrification for decades to come. Destruction of the coastline in Haifa. Destruction of Bat Galim and the coastal neighborhoods. A disaster in the lower city and the destruction of the dream of opening the anchorage to the city.
All the best to Ratner Langer and everyone who fought instead of a paralyzed and illusory Iriah with Mahans City, a real Trojan horse that always supports destructive plans for Haifa.