The "Egged Holdings" company is promoting an expansion to the Carmel Beach switchboard, and at the same time, a new central station is being built in Chek Post with an investment of tens of millions. However, in the near future Israel Railways intends to double the coastal railways and electrify them. Is there a connection between the projects and what are the risks and opportunities? What is the connection between the urban transportation system and the future of the economy and tourism in the city? And in short: what is the historical opportunity that Haifa must not miss? It's time to make decisions because the train is leaving the station soon.
בIn a few days, on Monday, 16/10/17, the Haifa District Planning and Construction Committee will meet, in its session as a sub-committee for appeals, to discuss objections to the plan submitted by "Egged Holdings" company, the main purpose of which is to increase the construction rights at the Carmel Beach Center , which will make it possible to build a bridge over the train, a hotel, etc. At the same time, a new central station is being built in Chek Post, which should improve connectivity between different means of transportation - buses, the matron, Israel Railways, and in the future, according to various plans - a light rail to Nazareth and a cable car to the Technion and the university.
Alongside all this, Israel Railways plans to realize its plan to double the coastal railways and electrify them. Although this plan will greatly improve the train service (by increasing the frequency and speed) and will prevent diesel engine smoke pollution from being emitted from it, near the homes of the residents in Haifa, but if the train is electrified along the existing route, it will mean a deeper and more serious disconnection between the city of Haifa and between the beaches and the seafront planned in the lower city.
I will now present the problems that exist in the current transportation system in Haifa, the risks and opportunities in the future plans - and how everything can be solved simply through a new concept regarding the urban transportation system.
The planning problem in Carmel Beach started years ago
Let's start with the Carmel Beach Central Station, whose future will be discussed in a few days, which was built in a way that harms the masses of passengers passing through it: the location of the passenger drop-off at the station as well as the boarding platforms were built at a relatively large distance from the nearby train station - about 250 m. Therefore, the passage of passengers between the two stations requires a repeated security check after leaving the open air. According to any professional standard, as is often done in Europe, the exchange point between the train and buses should be in immediate proximity and without the need to go through a security check twice.

But that's not the end of the problems of the Carmel Beach center. The truth is that its very location is problematic, or as real estate experts tend to say: "Location, location, location." A central station should be - pay attention - "central"! Its location should allow reaching many places on foot or via various alternative means Easily.
But the transportation complex of the Carmel beach - the bus and train stations - connects Shukum to Shukum, being blocked from all directions and inaccessible on foot to anywhere except the beach (and this too after a neglected and inaccessible underground passage):

The Carmel Beach Central Station - the station is blocked from all sides:

A very non-central central station:
Look at the distance between the current location of the Carmel Beach center and the employment and shopping centers

Check Post - a complex with a bright future?
In the meantime, we will move to Check Post where a new transportation center is currently being built at a cost of tens of millions of shekels, but don't worry, we will return later to the Carmel Coast and will not leave you without proper solutions to the problems raised.


Is the Gulf exchange central?
The station at Chek Post is also not "central" according to any criteria:

The center of the Gulf is blocked from the north by the hinterland of the port and a huge garbage mountain, beyond main roads and railways. To the west it is blocked by the entrance to the Carmel tunnels, more roads, and wilderness. The only relevant opening is from the south and east. To the south is the Check Post and to the east is the Lev Hamfaretz Mall. The check post is a semi-industrial area that is built with dimensions and planning that is actually suitable for cars only. The nature of the trade in it is also very much for a private vehicle. Therefore, there is no advantage to arriving by bus or train to this place. The Heart of the Gulf Mall is the only thing in the entire area that is really relevant in terms of the location of the transportation center, apart from the ability to switch between different types of transportation.

However, it should be said that Haifa Municipality is promoting the establishment of a new high-tech employment complex in the area west of it. But, let's be serious - the idea of investing in a huge transportation center in Chek Post is spoiled for the simple reason that as long as the polluting industry continues to exist and grow, Chek Post has no future. That's why no one wants to live there and many business owners prefer not to open a business there. What advanced high-tech company would want to invest itself in an area where low-tech dominates and destroys everything around it? This is, after all, a polluted place that will only get more polluted since the expansion of the refineries was approved and next to it a huge complex for storing hazardous materials (the "Northern Lands" project.)
We will stop here on the check post issue to move on to the railway electrification project, but we will return soon with solutions.
The doubling and electrification of the rails
Israel Railways is vigorously promoting one of its most ambitious projects since it began operating - the doubling of the coastal tracks and the construction of an infrastructure for electric trains along their length. Basically, this is an excellent project that will make it possible to greatly increase the frequency of the trains as well as their speed. In addition, the trains will no longer emit pollutants into the air in the locomotive itself - which will improve the air quality on the station platforms and in the neighborhoods through which the train passes. And this, compared to reduced pollution that will be emitted in the chimneys of the power plants operating on natural gas (as in Haifa, one of the only places in Israel that hosts power plants in the heart of the city.)
Several years ago, a tremendous struggle began against the doubling and electrification of the tracks in Haifa, because of the separation created by the train between the neighborhoods of the city of Haifa and the sea, as you can see in the photos:



In the meantime, instead of being used as an urban sea front, the area beyond the exciting railway is used as a parking lot for imported cars. Doesn't it seem more logical to build a parking lot south of the check post and instead open up the seafront? More on that in a separate article.



Doubling the tracks and electrifying them along the current route will only deepen the divide and anchor it for many more years. If it weren't for the separation between Haifa neighborhoods and the sea - it would be possible to easily walk to the sea and enjoy a better lifestyle. Today there are only a few crossings under/over the coastal road and the railway so the road is several times longer. Imagine that from all the coastal neighborhoods of Haifa it was possible to reach the sea on foot and as easily as in Bat Galim. The passage of the coastal road has simpler solutions than the passage of the train, and certainly of 4 parallel tracks. Now, add to the improvement in the quality of life an opportunity to open hotels in the neighborhoods - not huge and fanciful like the Carmel Beach towers, but like the small hotels in Bat Galim or the mid-sized hotels in Tiberias.
Haifa's coastal railways also disturb the rest of the country's residents
Not only the people of Haifa have a problem with the coastal railways, but also the rest of the country's residents - and the north in particular. The tracks pass and perform a northern detour in a manner very familiar to the residents of the Gulf, as follows:


solutions and discussion
Adr. Shmulik Galbhart, who served as deputy mayor of Haifa and chairman of the "Haifa Greens" faction, proposed a brilliant solution to the problem of the coastal railways years ago, which also provides a solution to the other problems I mentioned and even ties together a solution to additional Haifa problems. In a moment everything will be clear... Galbhart Already years ago, he proposed to change the route of the railways so that it would pass through Kiryat Shvarat (close to its original location), enter a tunnel under the mountain there and exit at the Carmel coast in a new and more relevant location between Matam and Neot Peres, as schematically as follows:

The green line marks the new track built in the tunnel and the green dots the new stations. schematic.
That is, this is what Haifa's train system will look like:

Why is it good?
For starters, this will allow the coastal neighborhoods and the downtown to develop towards the sea while deepening the connection between them. But it should be noted another alternative that emerged as very central is the sinking of the rail in its current route. But what has become clear is that the task is almost impossible. And this, because it will cost us astronomical sums (probably more than the proposed tunnel - due, among other things, to the proximity to the sea and the fact that the track route passes through dry areas that are very humid and very unstable) and that the work to sink the tracks will require very long shutdowns of train travel through Haifa.
If so, we will continue: the coastal road will still be an obstacle, but it is an obstacle that is easier to solve over time, with different alternatives in different areas - crossings, subsidence and roofing, a bridge over, a tunnel under, and more. The vision of the sea front could be realized and other neighborhoods in Haifa could develop similar to Bat Galim - a neighborhood that enjoys immediate proximity to the sea.
We will put the above insights aside and look back towards the Carmel Beach complex where we started:

You can see how the train tunnel through the mountain will help to easily solve the problems that arose at the beginning of this document regarding the Carmel beach. A new central station for trains and buses could be built in the center. From there it will be possible to easily reach the new stadium, the Naot Peres neighborhood, the MTM, Intel, and the electric company on foot and by bicycle, all within a few hundred meters. In addition, it will be possible to easily switch to public transportation between the beach neighborhoods (via Route 4) and Carmel ( Freud Road) and to the Carmel Castle (also via Route 4) - and this is thanks to the proximity to the Freud-Flyman and Route 4 intersection, also called the Matam Junction (exactly at the green point on the map above.)

While the key to the success of a city is a successful mix of land uses - residence, employment, commerce and leisure. mixed uses It is often the result of a relatively free economy, while separation of uses is a typical result of central planning (and bad.) The free economy is oriented toward mixing uses because it allows greater efficiency. First, mixing uses shortens the distances that must be traveled between the various needs, by creating trips in a variety of directions (and not everyone at the same time on the same street goes in the same direction, and then returns in the evening at the same time in the same direction,) but in both directions, thus reducing congestion.
Second, mixing uses is more effective because it allows the use of private and public spaces at all hours of the day and not at specific hours. For example, Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem which is used during the day for trade and at night for entertainment. As of recently, the Carmel Beach area includes all these uses - residence, employment, commerce and leisure, but in a very segregated manner in segregated complexes. It would have been better if the complexes had merged into each other. However, this is a long-term process that we will not delve into now, but we will point out the tremendous feasibility of establishing a central station in the heart of this complex - because central transportation stations are much more successful when they serve mixed-use complexes.

We will continue to the government meeting
Introduction on the history of the degeneration of the heart of the city: Haifa is a very special city for many reasons, among them its tremendous diversity. It is amazing how in such a short history it managed to accumulate a number of such different historical complexes that touch each other. I marked a few of them, which surround the area known as "downtown." In the early days of the modern city as it was built by the British Mandate, the height of the Haifa port was in the area marked on the map as "the sea front." And according to him, the peak of the city was formed, which developed outward from him: hotels, restaurants, and pubs greeted those who got off the ships; Government and shipping offices also wanted to be as close as possible to the port; Residential buildings tried to compete for space in an attempt to allow workers in the area to be as close as possible to their workplace. As the place ran out, so the city went and spread up the mountain and around it.
Different complexes emerged throughout the different periods and were preserved in one and another situations: the German colony, Wadi Nissens, the Turkish market, Wadi Saliv - which later the state took a huge bite out of and created Kiryat Shalmet, Hadar, and more. Each complex represented different periods, different populations and different styles. Then, several long processes carved the fate of the city for many years: the purchase of many cars and the construction of highways, among them the coastal road which transported all traffic between the north, the center and the south through Haifa for many years; closing the port to the public and sealing it off with fortified fences and gates, alongside the blockade imposed by the new railroads; and various other national processes that are not currently relevant.
Finally, we were left with a number of complexes that gradually deteriorated because they lost relevance. Restaurants were closed because sailors and tourists no longer went to them from the ships. Shipping companies left because connectivity in the area was damaged and it no longer mattered whether to sit next to the port or a few kilometers away, at ease. Residents left because the area had already become neglected and the pleasant Carmel heralded new opportunities for a quality life, and so on.
Now they are trying to revive these complexes but many do not understand why the efforts are not yielding significant results. My answer, in one word, is Connectivity. One of the main lessons learned from successful cities abroad is that any region that wants to be successful should sit on a public transport artery that connects it to the places where the residents are, and that the transition between the sub-regions should be easy and simple on foot. This is exactly how the most beautiful and successful complexes in your favorite cities abroad are designed What is needed is to connect the various means of transportation back together, in one central point, i.e. a "central station." Today, the Central Hasmona train station sits alone in Shukom, an unpleasant walk from the metro station that leads only to the flat areas of the city, and at an even greater distance from the Carmelite station in Paris Square that leads uphill The Mountain. Connecting these three measures will make it possible to bring about the necessary transformation in connectivity in the downtown area, as can be seen in the following map:

The three complexes closest to the new station were marked with special colors.
The existing track is marked in black. The red dot marks the current train station - Center Hasmona. The axis of the matron is marked in red.
The green line schematically marks the railway axis in the tunnel. The green dot marks the (approximate) location of the new-old railway station Kiryat Hamel. In pink is marked a correction to the matron's axis as will be detailed. schematic.
The train station should sit in the heart of the complexes, at the peak of the downtown, and not on the outskirts. It will be integrated into a central station in the heart of the downtown, which will allow, for example (along with many other options): to reach the center of Carmel by bicycle/on foot/by bus or to any of the Carmelite stations and get off at it (when restored) to the train station, which will be adjacent to Paris Square, and from there to get anywhere by train allows throughout the country (instead of going down in traffic through the Moriah road to the Carmel beach, parking in the middle of Shumok, walking kilometers to the station and returning in the evening with Freud's massive traffic jams.)
It is also requested on this occasion to correct a mistake made with the matron. She should never have gone through Independence Road in the lower city, but rather, continue straight through Maginim Ave., cross the German Colony and continue from there as usual (the pink marking on the map above.) The detour through the lower city is an unnecessary inconvenience, it aggravated the traffic jams in the lower city, and hurt Passengers who have to stand for long minutes at a red light on the way to the station (just to see the matron pass them by...) and stand for a few minutes at a red light after getting off from it. The passage through the defenders' road would have made it possible to develop this avenue as the main commercial lifeline of the lower city, to be used by the students in the schools along it, and the tourists who come to the city.
"Where the hell is there room for a new central station downtown?" you may ask. So here is the answer:

I mentioned two important concepts - mixing of uses and connectivity. These two planning principles, which currently do not exist in Haifa's planning lexicon (nor, in fact, anywhere else in the country) are essential for the success of the city. Mixing uses produces high connectivity and separation of uses produces limited connectivity. On the other hand, high connectivity allows the creation of a mix of uses and vice versa. These two concepts that I explained above complement each other, that is, they build or destroy - as we will decide in our planning policy. In the cases of HaCarmel Beach and Kiryat Havitel - creating central stations and surrounding complexes with a mix of land uses and high connectivity - businesses will seize the opportunity to be as close as possible to these transportation centers, as well as residential buildings, as happens around successful transportation centers abroad - where there are usually dozens And sometimes hundreds of businesses are already inside the station itself. The areas around the new central stations will undergo a development boom of private initiative from within the transportation complex and outside it in ever-growing circles. By improving connectivity and mixing uses, we will bring the urban centers out of the deep winter hibernation they are in.
How else will the train get south?
In addition to the tunnel between Kiryat Shvelat and the Carmel Coast, Galbhart proposed to vigorously promote the construction of the "Eastern Railway" (according to sub-paragraph 22) which would lead from Mikneam in a southerly direction parallel to Route 6, and connect Haifa to Sharon, Jerusalem and the south. The axis would allow: to spread the traffic between Two main rail axes (so that a malfunction or repairs will not completely shut down traffic;) to connect additional hubs and add additional options by train - Hasharon, Netavg, Shefala, Jerusalem, the south; to solve the problem of the bottleneck in the Ayalon railways; And perhaps most importantly - to transport the dangerous materials between the south and the port of Haifa, not through the heart of the city of Haifa and other cities along the coast (Atlit, Hadera, Binyamina, Netanya, Tel Aviv, etc.)
In contrast to Galbart, attorney Dvir Langer resolutely leads the alternative of the "Elevation Tunnel" between the heart of the Gulf and the settlements of the Carmel Coast. Langer agrees with Galbart that the Kiryat Shvart Tunnel - the Carmel Coast should be promoted, but alongside it also promote the "Esdrale Tunnel" in his opinion to answer the problems mentioned (but without solving the problem of the bottleneck in Ayalon and the general coastal railways that would force the construction of additional railways there.)

We will settle for now on this issue of another connection south of the city, and focus back on the interior of the city. But we will agree that it is necessary to open more railway lines to the south, whether it be the "boulevard tunnel," the "eastern rail," or even both.
Bat Galim asked
A difficult question to ask is what will be the effect of this tremendous change on Bat Galim, which currently enjoys a train station adjacent to the neighborhood. Of course, the main disadvantage of the change is the removal of the train station from the neighborhood. The alternative for the residents will be to use the metro to get to one of the two stations - Kiryat Havlat or the new Carmel Beach. It will be a minor inconvenience, but the return to the neighborhood will be greater, due to the removal of the track:

Clearing the track will make it possible to create greater connectivity between Bat Galim and Kiryat Eliezer and the rest of Haifa. In addition, the release of the land will allow it to be used for new purposes such as: parks, new residential buildings, public buildings and more. It is possible to use a part of the vacated axis to pave central bike paths and continue the subway throughout the neighborhood to improve connectivity to the other central stations.
Clearing the track will make it possible to create greater connectivity between Bat Galim and Kiryat Eliezer and the rest of Haifa. In addition, the release of the land will allow it to be used for new purposes such as: parks, new residential buildings, public buildings and more. It is possible to use a part of the vacated axis to pave central bike paths and continue the subway throughout the neighborhood to improve connectivity to the other central stations. However, it is desirable to convert the matron into a real light rail that will provide the residents of Bat Galim in particular and all users in general a better service. To sum up the matter of Bat Galim, in my opinion the change will do her much more good than harm.
What about the cable car?
For years there has been talk of a cable car from the Check Post to the Technion and the university, and even though every time they announce that "this time it's real," there is currently no real sign on the horizon of the construction of the cable car. I come to this conclusion after examining actual documents and real planning and budgeting processes, and not statements (so they won't work on you.) But we will treat the project with the seriousness it deserves. It is a great shame to discover that one of the incentives for the construction of the new switchboard in Chek Post (as mentioned the switchboard "from place to place") is the construction of a cable car, which, as I will explain, is no bigger mistake for Haifa.

There are some problems with the cable car as I will detail. First, its current route will completely skip the residential neighborhoods that are near it (such as Neve Shanan, Ziv, Ramat Alon.) It is a colossal waste of resources to invest in infrastructure that costs hundreds of millions when it can be adapted to serve tens of thousands more (who also happen to pay property taxes and deserve compensation.) As a result of the separation to the neighborhoods, the cable car will actually only serve the campus island. But there is a big problem with campuses - for about 4 months of the year (between the winter and spring semesters) the activity there is very limited and the demand there is very low. Being the only users of the cable car, this will result in very low demand for it. The problem with an infrastructure like a cable car is that it is supposed to serve a constant and continuous demand throughout the day and throughout the year. Because unlike buses that can be adjusted to different periods and times of the day, all the cable car cars move together or don't move at all. Then in the low months there will be a huge waste and in fact also during the low hours of the Makposim.
If they had built an infrastructure for buses or a Pernicular (a special train for a sharp ascent), it might have been a different story. But there is still another huge argument concerning the tremendous damage the project will have in Haifa, regardless of the type of measure. Apart from the budget hole that the cable car will drag because of the recession months - the cable car will encourage students and employees at the Technion and the university to move outside of Haifa - to Kiryat, Yakneam, Tivon, and more. The municipal company "Yapa Nof" which is responsible for the promotion and implementation of the project recognizes this and it came up in the process of deriving the meanings. That is, in a very proactive manner, the Haifa municipality intends to invest valuable property tax money of the city's residents in creating an infrastructure that will encourage mass abandonment of the city.
Why taxi and why abandonment? The Technion and the university should not be underestimated at all as one of the main employment anchors of Haifa. Nearly 20,000 people study and are employed at the Technion and more than half of that at the university. That means we are talking about the order of magnitude of 33,000 people who study and are employed on these campuses almost every day. If you add a spouse to half of them and most of the couples have 1.5 children on average, we are easily talking about about 75,000 people who have a direct or secondary connection to the Technion and the university, a number that equals almost a third of the city's residents. Although this is a rough estimate, this is roughly the amount of people that the cable car is going to directly affect and allow them to leave Haifa and live in other settlements such as Yakneam, Kiryat, Tivon, and more - and get to the Technion and the university faster and more easily than many neighborhoods in Haifa. The cable car may cause the largest mass abandonment of the city - what Bezan failed to do threatens to make an innocent cable car.
Where is it worth investing in a cable car and how is it related to the conclusions we reached earlier?

The desired cable car route - in pink (the splits mark the possible alternatives.)
A cable car that will connect the lower city and Hadar - through Nahal Givorim - with Neve Shanan, Ziv, the Technion, Ramat Alon and the university will serve several great purposes at the same time. It will make it possible to revive these neighborhoods by encouraging students to live in Hadar and in the lower city (which is currently avoided because of the connectivity problem between these areas - even direct and fast buses are almost non-existent, and I will write about my efforts to create such lines another time.) It will be possible to use the cable car to get around freely between Ziv, Neve Shanan, Hadar and the lower city, and in addition these neighborhoods will be connected to the Israel Railways by an efficient and fast line that skips the traffic jams - through the (future) Kiryat Havaler station. Nahal Givorim, which makes up most of the road, is a fairly empty area that allows for the construction of such an infrastructure, and passing over Neighborhoods are also no problem.
Urban cable cars are carried out in many places around the world, and slowly the tremendous advantages of this means are being realized. It passes quietly and without contamination over the traffic jams and bridges areas that have very limited connectivity between them. Indeed, in cities all over the world - such as Porto, Medellin, La Paz, Ankara, and many more - they managed to solve difficult problems of urban connectivity and thus revived neglected neighborhoods and old business centers. And if that's not enough, the cable cars help transport many tourists between famous sites and are an attraction in themselves.

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Montju%C3%AFc_Cable_Car.jpg

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Funchal_Cable_Car_Madeira.jpg

Photo by Clément Belleudy (2013). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License.

Metrocable in Commune 13, Medellín, Colombia. Photo: Omar Uran. Creative Commons BY 2.0 (cropped).


Final insights before concluding
Now, let's take the transportation vision we've discussed so far:
And we will see how the city begins to connect with it together from the heart out and from the outside into the heart. We will see how suburbanization and urban sprawl stop and the real and true rehabilitation begins. But at the same time, we will notice that this huge system does not provide a complete solution for all Haifa people. And so we will have to use our imagination a bit and see how to connect additional areas, in creative ways: below ground and above. One can imagine a subway along the entire axis of the ridge - from Universita to Stella Maris to connect with the cable car there to Bat Galim. One can imagine a cable car from the Carmel beach to the axis of the ridge (also as suggested by Shmulik Galbhart.) and one can also think of additional connections between different parts. For example, a cable car between Neve Shanan and the center of Carmel will make it possible to cover in 5 minutes the distance that today takes 20-30 minutes by car, and that's without finding parking at either end. This example is only meant to stimulate thought. I have marked additional possible connections according to the principles I put forward:

It is also appropriate to recall the idea of Einat Kalish Rotem for the installation of escalators going down from the center of Carmel to the lower city. The escalators will make it possible to get between the center of Carmel, Hadar and the lower city in a few minutes, make arrangements and move between parts of the city for real transportation needs. Such a project exists in Hong Kong and has been very successful (I will post about it separately soon.)


In addition, many bike paths must be created to connect the neighborhoods with the main transportation arteries, mainly in the flat neighborhoods, but not only (thanks to the electric bikes that are now coming in.) I wrote about this in detail recently:
The people of Haifa are voting with their feet - they want a solution for bike paths: Yom Kippur
The new transportation vision for Haifa will allow every Haifaite to move easily between parts of the city: safely; cheap; without polluting the environment with polluted air that causes terrible diseases; while maintaining an active and healthy life span; And above all - very happily, without the stress and frustration of traffic jams and congestion. Thanks to overcoming Haifa's connectivity problem, the city will become the most attractive in the country. Its attractiveness will also be obvious to the many tourists, especially the Europeans who suffer from many months of rain and cold throughout the year, and who will be happy to come and warm up a bit in a modern and colorful city. They would be happy to stay in a hotel, perhaps in the center of Carmel, go down the Baha'is or the city steps through Hadar to the lower city, walk around Wadi Nissens and the German colony, and take a ferry to Acre. Return in the evening, ride a bike along the beach, and return to the hotel.
The diversity and wealth of the city can attract hundreds of thousands of tourists a year to Haifa, if only we overcome the connectivity problem. The tourists I take to Haifa every month tell me that it is very difficult to get around the city, when I ask them what the main problem in Haifa is in their opinion and what is the first thing they would change. There are not many quality sidewalks, without disruptions and parked cars. The buses travel on cumbersome routes, and there are too many obstructions between the different sections. Most tourists prefer to walk than rent a car, and even then there is no room for more cars in the city.
Back to the Carmel Beach central where we started. I would love for Egged to get more building rights there, for the benefit of hotels - because this location will be able to serve the purpose optimally, without a central station. And in general, the military base north of the center, which sits on some of the most prestigious land in the city and suffocates it, deserves to be given its place in favor of a new residential, employment, leisure and hotel complex. What is particularly offensive is that in the government's decision to remove the IDF base from the territories of the big cities, as usual, as in many government decisions, they forgot the good of Haifa and allowed the Kfar Samir base to remain in its place and block the development of the city towards the sea. It would be appropriate to establish a new neighborhood there that would be a useful intervention Residence, leisure, employment and recreation.


I will write more about tourism in the city in another publication, but for now it's time to finish.
Funding and summary
Yes, these projects will cost several billions. Look, I deliberately did not touch on exact numbers here. In the document I wanted to talk about the general picture without diving into the details. But we still need to talk within the practical framework. In front of the billions of shekels that these projects will cost, I want you to think about the economic benefit that will be created. Think of all the areas of the coastal railways that will be cleared in favor of residences, hotels and various businesses. Think about the sale of the land in front of the sea, the entry of hundreds of businesses into the masses of empty offices, the property tax they will pay and the workers they will hire. Think about improving the land along the axis of the stairs, and the businesses that will come in. About the thousands of empty apartments in the lower city and Hadar that will be filled with tenants who will pay property tax and fill the businesses in the city. The plan I have proposed here will achieve all these goals and therefore the investment will pay for itself in a big way. And besides, the time has come for the Haifa municipality to bring the government offices here for real and significant investment for a change - after decades of neglect.
The main points of the program in the first stage:
- Excavation of a tunnel between Kiryat Shvarman and the Carmel coast for the benefit of the Israel Railways
- Creation of central stations in Kiryat Havmet and Matam Junction
- Construction of a set of escalators between the sea front, Hadar Road and the center of Carmel.
- Correcting the subway route in the lower city and removing the railroad from the city.
- Releasing the railway land and opening the urban sea front.
- Construction of a cable car between the lower city via Hadar, Nahal Givorim, Neve Shanan, Ziv, the Technion, Ramat Alon and the university.
- Layout of a network of bicycle paths throughout the city.
- And more steps to the glory of the city of Haifa!
Many of the city's major problems are now tied together in a unified solution. We will note that there is no reference to important Haifa issues such as air pollution, hazardous substances, urban nature, and more - but that's fine because we chose to focus on urban planning around the economy and transportation. The infrastructure we put in place will be able to serve us when we come to examine a solution to other problems. I invite you to dream with me, sweet dreams indeed, but also very realistic, and to work for the correction of Haifa's planning problems as proposed here. If you have any comments or suggestions, I'd love to hear them. And if you want clarification or deepening, I will be happy to come and explain. And in any case, if most of the city's residents did not know about this plan, it would be difficult to implement it. That's why I ask that you spread it further. see you later.