Carmelit - the world’s coolest subway

The Carmelit is a tiny 1.8 km long underground funicular railway with six stations - most funicular systems just have two. It runs up through Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. A funicular railway is a cable railway with ascending and descending cars counterbalanced. The Carmelit operates entirely underground. Similar systems can be found in Istanbul, Barcelona etc but they have less stations. Istanbul's system was built in the 19th century and is therefore older than the Carmelit - sorry I got that wrong in the video.
The Carmelit's highest station (Gan Ha’em) is 274 meters above the lowest (Paris Square). The system was built between 1956 and 1959 under the direction of Yosef Cohen, then Haifa’s City Engineer. It opened for passengers in 1959 and then closed in 1986 for modernisation. In 1992 it reopened with a bright new look and brand new funicular cars manufactured in Switzerland by Von Roll.
The Carmelit, in its own right, is a ‘must see’ for tourists. However, it is also useful for visiting many of Haifa’s attractions - see http://www.carmelithaifa.com for details. Unfortunately, the Carmelit railway is not suitable for those with mobility issues due to the lack of lifts and the large number of steps in each station.
Carmelit the movie star:
In 2003 the Carmelit featured in the six minute short film ‘Strangers’ by Erez Tadmor and Guy Nattiv. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpjHSiQLPmA

Video by Karl Martin.
The first still photo shows a MACK R-series heavy tractor unit removing the original Carmelit's cars in 1986/'87. This photo is ©The Carmelit Haifa Ltd. All other photos by Karl Martin.

Видео Carmelit - the world’s coolest subway канала Karl Martin