Hof HaCarmel Railway Station
Encyclopedia
Carmel Beach Railway Station is an Israel Railways
passenger station serving the city of Haifa
, Israel
.
in southwest Haifa. It is located on Sakharov
street adjacent to Haifa Hof HaCarmel Central Bus Station
, just north of Haifa South interchange, where the Coastal Highway (Highway 2
) splits into Highway 4
and the Carmel Tunnels
. The station is within walking distance of two shopping mall
s (Haifa Mall and Castra Mall), Haifa's Congressional Center and the MATAM hi-tech park
. It is one of three railway stations serving the city of Haifa directly and one of six stations within Haifa's municipal borders.
During the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
train service to the station was suspended after a Hezbollah Katyusha rocket hit a train depot in Haifa on July 16, 2006, killing 8 Israel Railways workers. This suspension meant that Haifa, in addition to the rest of northern Israel
, were cut off from the train network. The service was reinstated several days later, after Israel Railways gave in to heavy public pressure led by Haifa’s mayor, Yona Yahav
. This made it the northernmost station to operate during the war, providing the only train link to the whole of northern Israel.
s and one island platform
, numbered from west to east (1 to 4), between each side platform and the island platform there are two rail tracks – four in total. The length of western platform
(platform 1) and the two platforms on the island platform (platforms 2 and 3) is 250 meters, while the eastern platform (platform 4) is only 70 meters in length.
The main station hall is located to the east of the rail tracks. Several meters north of the entrance to the station there is a pedestrian tunnel
connecting the railway station with the adjacent Carmel Beach Central Bus Station. In addition, a small station building is located to the west of the rail tracks, allowing access to the beach
and the parking lot
outside the station.
The two side platforms and the island platform are interconnected by a pedestrian tunnel equipped with lift
s allowing access for the disabled
. A second tunnel connects the station's eastern and western sides, running alongside but separated by a glass brick
wall from the platform-access tunnel, this tunnel was constructed after Haifa's city council
demanded that a free access to the beach, west of the station, would be provided, bypassing any station territory where train ticket
s are required.
Carmel Beach Railway Station is the only railway station in Israel with a reinforced concrete
roof spanning from the eastern station hall to the western station building covering all the rail tracks and platforms, this roof is to become the floor of the second story of the station, housing Israel Railways' modernized control and supervision center. Platform 1 is used for northbound Inter-City trains, platform 2 for southbound Inter-City trains. Platform 3 is used only for suburban trains requiring the relocation of the locomotive
from one end of the train to the other and platform 4 is the primary platform used by suburban trains.
of Israel Railways (Nahariya
– Haifa – Tel-Aviv – Ben-Gurion Airport Inter-City Service) and a terminus for the suburban line serving Haifa's northern suburbs – The Qrayot
(Haifa - Qiryat Motzkin
Suburban Service), as well as being an important interchange station
between the two railway lines. The station is situated between Haifa Bat Galim Railway Station
to the north and Atlit Railway Station
.
lines.
Israel Railways
Israel Railways is the principal passenger railway operating company in Israel, and is responsible for all inter-city and suburban rail way passenger and freight traffic in the country. All its lines are standard gauge. The network is centered in Israel's densely populated coastal plain, from...
passenger station serving the city of Haifa
Haifa
Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
.
Location
The station is situated on the north-south Coastal lineCoastal railway line, Israel
The Coastal railway line is a mainline railway in Israel, which begins just south of the Lebanon-Israel border on the Mediterranean coast, near the town of Nahariya in Northern Israel and currently ends in Tel Aviv; by 2013 it will be linked to the existing Ashdod Railway Station south of Tel Aviv,...
in southwest Haifa. It is located on Sakharov
Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist. He earned renown as the designer of the Soviet Union's Third Idea, a codename for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons. Sakharov was an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the...
street adjacent to Haifa Hof HaCarmel Central Bus Station
Haifa Hof HaCarmel Central Bus Station
Carmel Beach Central Bus Station is the main bus station in Haifa, Israel, replacing the Haifa Bat Galim Central Bus Station. The former station is now only used to store Egged buses and for Egged office space and innercity buses now only stop there on the road rather than inside on the route...
, just north of Haifa South interchange, where the Coastal Highway (Highway 2
Highway 2 (Israel)
Highway 2 is an Israeli highway located on the coastal plain of the Mediterranean Sea. It stretches from Tel Aviv to Haifa. The highway is also called The Coastal Highway or The New Haifa - Tel Aviv Highway ....
) splits into Highway 4
Highway 4 (Israel)
Highway 4 is an Israeli highway that runs along Israel's entire coastal plain of the Mediterranean Sea, its route in the north runs from the Rosh HaNikra border crossing with Lebanon until the Erez Border Crossing with the Gaza Strip...
and the Carmel Tunnels
Carmel Tunnels
The Carmel Tunnels are a set of road tunnels in and around Haifa, Israel. The tunnels' purpose is to reduce road congestion in the Haifa area and to provide an alternate route of reaching the eastern and central parts of the city, Haifa Bay and the Krayot area to and from Israel's central coastal...
. The station is within walking distance of two shopping mall
Shopping mall
A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...
s (Haifa Mall and Castra Mall), Haifa's Congressional Center and the MATAM hi-tech park
Matam, Haifa
Matam , located at the southern entrance to Haifa, is the largest and oldest dedicated hi-tech parks in Israel...
. It is one of three railway stations serving the city of Haifa directly and one of six stations within Haifa's municipal borders.
History
During the British Mandate, the station was known as Kfar Samir. Carmel Beach Railway Station was built during the first half of 1999 as part of the Carmel Beach Transport complex on the southern outskirts of Haifa. It opened on July 10, 1999. In the spring of 2006, work began on a second story to house a modern control and supervision center. The construction was completed by the end of 2007.During the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
The 2006 Lebanon War, also called the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War and known in Lebanon as the July War #Other uses|Tammūz]]) and in Israel as the Second Lebanon War , was a 34-day military conflict in Lebanon, northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories. The principal parties were Hezbollah...
train service to the station was suspended after a Hezbollah Katyusha rocket hit a train depot in Haifa on July 16, 2006, killing 8 Israel Railways workers. This suspension meant that Haifa, in addition to the rest of northern Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, were cut off from the train network. The service was reinstated several days later, after Israel Railways gave in to heavy public pressure led by Haifa’s mayor, Yona Yahav
Yona Yahav
Yona Yahav is an Israeli lawyer and politician. Formerly a member of the Knesset for the Labor Party, he is currently mayor of Haifa.-Biography:...
. This made it the northernmost station to operate during the war, providing the only train link to the whole of northern Israel.
Design
The station consists of two side platformSide platform
A Side platform is a platform positioned to the side of a pair of tracks at a railway station, a tram stop or a transitway. A pair of side platforms are often provided on a dual track line with a single side platform being sufficient for a single track line...
s and one island platform
Island platform
An island platform is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange...
, numbered from west to east (1 to 4), between each side platform and the island platform there are two rail tracks – four in total. The length of western platform
Railway platform
A railway platform is a section of pathway, alongside rail tracks at a train station, metro station or tram stop, at which passengers may board or alight from trains or trams. Almost all stations for rail transport have some form of platforms, with larger stations having multiple platforms...
(platform 1) and the two platforms on the island platform (platforms 2 and 3) is 250 meters, while the eastern platform (platform 4) is only 70 meters in length.
The main station hall is located to the east of the rail tracks. Several meters north of the entrance to the station there is a pedestrian tunnel
Tunnel
A tunnel is an underground passageway, completely enclosed except for openings for egress, commonly at each end.A tunnel may be for foot or vehicular road traffic, for rail traffic, or for a canal. Some tunnels are aqueducts to supply water for consumption or for hydroelectric stations or are sewers...
connecting the railway station with the adjacent Carmel Beach Central Bus Station. In addition, a small station building is located to the west of the rail tracks, allowing access to the beach
Beach
A beach is a geological landform along the shoreline of an ocean, sea, lake or river. It usually consists of loose particles which are often composed of rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles or cobblestones...
and the parking lot
Parking lot
A parking lot , also known as car lot, is a cleared area that is intended for parking vehicles. Usually, the term refers to a dedicated area that has been provided with a durable or semi-durable surface....
outside the station.
The two side platforms and the island platform are interconnected by a pedestrian tunnel equipped with lift
Elevator
An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...
s allowing access for the disabled
Disability rights movement
The disability rights movement is the movement to secure equal opportunities and equal rights for people with disabilities. The specific goals and demands of the movement are: accessibility and safety in transportation, architecture, and the physical environment, equal opportunities in independent...
. A second tunnel connects the station's eastern and western sides, running alongside but separated by a glass brick
Glass brick
Glass brick, also known as glass block, is an architectural element made from glass. Glass bricks provide visual obscuration while admitting light...
wall from the platform-access tunnel, this tunnel was constructed after Haifa's city council
City council
A city council or town council is the legislative body that governs a city, town, municipality or local government area.-Australia & NZ:Because of the differences in legislation between the States, the exact definition of a City Council varies...
demanded that a free access to the beach, west of the station, would be provided, bypassing any station territory where train ticket
Ticket (admission)
A ticket is a voucher that indicates that one has paid for admission to an event or establishment such as a theatre, movie theater, amusement park, zoo, museum, concert, or other attraction, or permission to travel on a vehicle such as an airliner, train, bus, or boat, typically because one has...
s are required.
Carmel Beach Railway Station is the only railway station in Israel with a reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...
roof spanning from the eastern station hall to the western station building covering all the rail tracks and platforms, this roof is to become the floor of the second story of the station, housing Israel Railways' modernized control and supervision center. Platform 1 is used for northbound Inter-City trains, platform 2 for southbound Inter-City trains. Platform 3 is used only for suburban trains requiring the relocation of the locomotive
Locomotive
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...
from one end of the train to the other and platform 4 is the primary platform used by suburban trains.
Train service
Carmel Beach Railway Station is a station on both the main North-South Coastal lineCoastal railway line, Israel
The Coastal railway line is a mainline railway in Israel, which begins just south of the Lebanon-Israel border on the Mediterranean coast, near the town of Nahariya in Northern Israel and currently ends in Tel Aviv; by 2013 it will be linked to the existing Ashdod Railway Station south of Tel Aviv,...
of Israel Railways (Nahariya
Nahariya
Nahariya is the northernmost coastal city in Israel, with an estimated population of 51,200.-History:Nahariya was founded by German Jewish immigrants from the Fifth Aliyah in the 1930s...
– Haifa – Tel-Aviv – Ben-Gurion Airport Inter-City Service) and a terminus for the suburban line serving Haifa's northern suburbs – The Qrayot
HaQerayot
The Krayot are a cluster of five small cities founded in the 1930s in the Haifa Bay area, on the outskirts of the city of Haifa, Israel. The Krayot are Kiryat Yam ,...
(Haifa - Qiryat Motzkin
Qiryat Motzkin
Kiryat Motzkin is a city in the Haifa District of Israel, 8 km north of the city of Haifa. At the end of 2007, the population was 39,600. The city is named after Leo Motzkin, one of the organizers of the First Zionist Congress in 1897.-History:...
Suburban Service), as well as being an important interchange station
Interchange station
An interchange station or a transfer station is a train station for more than one railway route in a public transport system, and allows passengers to change from one route to another. Transfer may occur within the same mode, or between rail modes, or to buses...
between the two railway lines. The station is situated between Haifa Bat Galim Railway Station
Haifa Bat Galim Railway Station
Haifa Bat Galim Railway Station is an Israel Railways passenger station situated on the coastal railway line and serves the city of Haifa. The station takes its name from the neighborhood of Bat Galim, where it is located...
to the north and Atlit Railway Station
Atlit Railway Station
Atlit Railway Station is an Israel Railways passenger station serving the town of Atlit as well as the Surrounding rural communities and military bases.- Location :...
.
Public Transport Connections
Carmel Beach Railway Station is adjacent to Carmel Beach Central Bus Station and connected to it via a pedestrian tunnel, this makes the station accessible from dozens of city and Inter-City busBus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
lines.