Carmelit – Haifa subway funicular – old cars removal and insertion of new cars

The “Carmelit” is Haifa’s underground funicular, and the only subway system in Israel. It links Downtown Haifa at sea level, with the Carmel Center at around 280 meters above sea level, with 6 stations. The system was built by a French company in the 1950s, and started its first generation service in 1959. It worked until 1986, was shut down, and reopened only in 1992 after extensive renovation process, which included building rail tracks and replacing the old cars. The second generation service ended in 2017, when a fire caused severe damage to the cars, tracks, tunnel and systems. Currently the Carmelit is undergoing renovations, to prepare it for its third generation service, which is planned to be inaugurated in September 2018.

Removing old cars

As part of the process, two old cars have to be removed from the underground tunnel. The tunnel edge, and the system garage is located under “Paris Square” in Downtown Haifa. But the opening to the square is 90 degrees to tunnel and tracks, so cars should be rotated inside the garage before lifted out. This is a tricky maneuver, as the garage length is barely the length of the car. Can this challenging task accomplished? Watch this video, as workers do their best to hoist the old car from the track and rotate it in the tiny garage:

 

Old car – almost fully occupies the garage length

Rotation process as seen from the end of the funicular tunnel

Two old cars on their way out – one still on the track, the other is ready to be lifted using a crane

 

Inserting new cars

New cars were manufactured by the Swiss company Garaventa – Doppelmayr. Here is one out of four new cars, lifted above Paris Square:

This is the new car during rotation process

 

The best view is by watching the whole process in x50 speed, in this time lapse video: