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Carmelit (The Haifa Subway)

When our Israel tour was in Haifa, our guide mentioned that Haifa was the only city in Israel that had a subway - and that one of the stations was right around the corner from our hotel. Cool.

The Carmelit is actually an underground funicular or inclined plane railway. Much of Haifa is built on the top and sides of Mount Carmel, and this train provides service to six stations from the top of the mountain down to Paris Square in downtown Haifa. The entire system consists of two two-car trains that counterbalance themselves on a pair of drive cables. The system has a single track with a short passing track midway along the route. It originally opened in 1956 and underwent significant renovations in the late 1980s. At the time I visited it was apparently lightly used and ran an operating deficit.

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