The Carmelit is an underground public transportation system, the first of its kind in Israel, operating in Haifa since 1959. It connects the three main "staircases" on which Haifa is built: the lower city, the Hadar neighborhood, and the Carmel Center.
Carmelit – Subway?
Contrary to popular belief, which claims that the Carmelit is a subway, it is a cable car that moves on rails instead of being suspended in the air. Unlike a train, the Carmelit cars have no engine, and the weight of the descending cars is the main force that propels the ascending cars (the engine at the upper end station also contributes propulsion to the system).
Brief history of the establishment
The idea of establishing a railway connection between the three centers of Haifa first came up in Benjamin Ze'ev Herzl's book "Altneuland", which describes Haifa as "a large port city, a city of commerce and industry... with an electric railway that would connect the port with the residential area on the Carmel ridge."
The British Mandate government in Israel, in its early days (1919), began to pay attention to the problem of a fast and convenient connection in Haifa between the low-lying coastal strip (the lower city), the mountain slopes (Hadar Carmel), and the Carmel mountain range. The British military government requested plans that would solve this problem and was even submitted five plans. The Zionist Executive also gave its consent to this, and in 1919 the idea was raised by Dr. Arthur Ruppin, who began planning a railway that would connect the three parts of the city. In 1921–1922, Pinchas Rotenberg also thought about this matter and even prepared a plan. In 1936, a plan was put forward, the construction of which was supposed to be financed by the funds of the "transfer agreement" with Germany. However, not one of these plans matured and reached the implementation stage.
The construction of the Carmelit in Haifa, in its current form, was decided by the City Council in 1953. In 1956, after negotiations with a French company, work began on the tunnels, which were carried out by two teams, with opposing directions. The work was completed in 1957, when the two teams met under the "Solel Boneh" square. The construction of the Carmelit was completed in 1959 with the arrival of two sets of carriages. The official inauguration ceremony of the Carmelit was held on October 21, 1959, in the presence of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, Minister of Transportation Moshe Carmel, and Minister of Police Bechor-Shalom Sheetrit.
History of accidents
In 1959, while the Carmelite was already running, an accident occurred during one of the test runs, which caused a delay in the inauguration of the project. In January 1960, an accident occurred, caused by a torn electrical wire in the control panel. As a result, the Carmelite was prevented from stopping at the Paris Square station, and the carriages collided with the station walls and thus came to a halt. As a result, it was decided to slow down the speed of travel.
In November 1961, another accident occurred: during maintenance work during which the cable was replaced, two carriages became detached from their positions at Gan Ham station, derailed, and overturned at Masada station.
In July 1967, a malfunction occurred in the counterweight system at Paris Square station.
In May 1986, a boy was seriously injured when his leg got caught in the door of the Carmelit while it was still moving.
The New Carmelite
In December 86, the Carmelite ceased operations as a direct result of the system's obsolescence. Between 1986 and 89, an international tender was issued to renovate the Carmelite, but in the end the work did not proceed. The Carmelite's operations were suspended, except for necessary maintenance work.
A report by the "Israel Institute for Transportation Planning and Research" indicated that the Carmelit could not provide an adequate solution to the traffic congestion in Haifa. Despite this, the Haifa Municipality decided to renovate and renew the Carmelit through the Haifa Economic Company. In July 92, after extensive renovation work, the renewed Carmelit was inaugurated in the presence of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Mayor Aryeh Gural, in a ceremony at Gan Ham.
Is Carmelite economical?
The small number of stations means that the Carmelit only serves a limited area in Haifa, an area that was important when the Carmelit was planned, but has now declined in importance. The Carmelit has six stations, which are: "Gan Ham" (Center of the Carmel), "Golomb" (Bnei Zion Hospital), "Maseda", "Hanevi'im", "Hadar-Iriya" (Solal-Bone) and "Kikar Paris" (Downtown).
In the past, there was talk of expanding the Carmelit tunnels to reach additional population centers, but these plans were not implemented due to their high costs. According to the city accountant's report (2004), the Carmelit is used by approximately 2,000 passengers each day, and has not been economical since its reopening in 1992. Despite this, the Haifa Municipality decided to continue its operation and even expand its hours of operation.
As of 2017, the Carmelit has been integrated into the Haifa Metropolitan Transportation System, including Israel Railways and Metro.
The latest upgrade
In February 2017, a fire broke out at the Paris Square station, completely destroying one of the projection systems and damaging the tunnel. In 2018, new carriages arrived and were inserted into the tunnel through the Paris Square station. The Carmelite reopened in October 2018.
Today, since the last upgrade, the train system is operating without any problems and we hope that history will not repeat itself.
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When they founded the Carmelite, they suggested names, one of which was "Khushon" after the then mayor, Abba Khushi.
The Carmelit has 2500-5000 passengers daily.
Much more than the stupid cable car to the university.
The main problem is the lack of complementary Carmelite lines along the ridge axis.
If there was a Carmelit line to Neve Sha'anan and the university, it is clear that tens of thousands of people would travel daily on both lines. For example, if a nurse works at Bnei Zion Hospital and today takes her car from Einstein Street to get to Bnei Zion. If there was a stop at Baba Khushi and she took the Carmelit 2 line to Gan Ham and at Gan Ham changed to Bnei Zion, it is clear that she would not need a car.
Or a student who lives in Hadar and studies at the university. He would go up to Gan Ham and from there take the Carmelit line 2 to the university. Or a resident of Neve Sha'anan would take the Carmelit line 3 to Horev and change there to Carmelit 2.
To the university.
This is how any normal city works to create a system of lines, so in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv they are now building not one line but several intersecting lines to create a network. Only in Haifa there is no network at all.
It would be economical if the fees for using it were zero.
Its economic efficiency is measured by the number of cars it will prevent from traveling in its area of operation…
During 2019, 1,110,000 people used the Carmelit; if you divide the above number by 365 days, you get 3,000 passengers per day. There are no elevators at the Carmelit stations, escalators are very partial, in simple words, the Carmelit Haifa is inaccessible to most residents.
The Carmelite is closed on Saturdays and Friday evenings.
So you don't have to divide by 365 days, but by 300.
That's 3,700 passengers a day on average, not 3000.
Isn't it strange that with the old technologies of the 50s, they managed to create an underground Carmelite tram with 3 stations in 6 years, and since then, for 70 years, they haven't been able to extend the Carmelite tram on the Carmel Ridge to a second line with another 12 stations to the university?!
Do you realize how impersonal the failed transportation engineers here are, that it takes them 5 years to implement a failed metro line - compared to the vision and execution 70 years ago of Carmelit, which works great to this day??
I heard the public participation regarding the master plan until 2040 for transportation. We marked the result (a metro line) instead of demanding the best – an additional Carmelit line in the ridge and an elevated Carmelit line from Horeb through the Wadiyot to the stadium and MTA.
Everyone knows what needs to be done, they just don't do it. We're hearing about the matron in Neve Sha'anan again (???)
I was 10 years old when we gathered in Paris Square, the entire neighborhood of Holocaust survivors who lived in the abandoned Arab houses in Wadi Salib, to witness the opening ceremony of the Carmelite. My father, who was a Revisionist,
He put me on his shoulders, pointed to someone standing there, and said: Do you see this man with the bald spot in the middle and the flowing white hair? This is Ben Gurion, our enemy!!!
Thank you David Bar On for such memories and the magnificent documentation and stories about houses in historic Haifa that are worth remembering and preserving.
Thank you very much for your response, Shabbat Shalom!
The left and right here have always been similarly confused about who the enemy really is whose sole goal is to commit a Holocaust here (a hint at the beginning of your words).
Well done to you, Dr. David Bar On, for the information. Happy and blessed Shabbat.
Thank you very much, Rafi, Shabbat Shalom!