Update 05/02/2026
updated all cache links and added new caches. added Background image.
Welcome To Haifa!
The city which had up to six different ("Tik-Tak" (canceld), "Rachbalit" Cable-Car, "Carmelit"-Funicular, Buses, "Metronit"-BRT and Train) public mass transportation systems!! – soon to have Six again with the light rail.
Today we will tour All of them.
("Rachbalit" Cable-Car, "Carmelit"-Funicular, Buses, "Metronit"-BRT and Train)
If you want, you can complete this in one go – it takes about one to two hours - You will need to purchase an all-day pass including the train system. any additional fees are at your own discretion.
If you want to combine this with a whole day of caching, I am adding possible caches to find near the route at the bottom of the description.
Haifa Public Transportation – a short (as I could) history
During the ottoman period in the mid-19th century, PTS started in an unorganized fashion in the form of "Diligence" carriages mainly run by the Templers (The German Templer Society) but quickly the Arabic community gave competition and became the main tow seat "Diligence" owners. Along side to the inner-city PTS was developed the train system and by the early 20th century the Haifa train station was built.
During the British mandate PTS moved towards the motorized option and the now called Paris square acted as the central bus station to the city. To that extant a closer railway station was built – Haifa Center train station.
After the establishment of the state of Israel with the growing population of Haifa and changes in PT demand the network has seen many changes.
In the late 50's the "Carmelit" was built to serve the people living up the ridge. The central bus station (CBS) that was located on Ha-Carmel Boulevard (today Ben Gurion ST) moved to the Bat-Galim CBS. Opened in 1974 and closed 2003 it has since become a "white elephant". Along with it was built and opened by 1975 the Bat-Galim train station and up till the closing of the BG CBS together they served as the main PT hub for inner and outer-city transportation. In a plan to alleviate the congestion do to outer-city bus PT, two new PT hubs were built by 2002. One in the North entrance to the city (Ha-Mifrats CBS and train station) and one in the south (Hof Ha-Carmel CBS and train station). At 2013 the city saw the opening of the "Metronit" BRT lines. 3 were opened then and quite recently 2 more were added, but only one got BRT lane (num 5). Last was built the "Rachbalit" cable car. Opened by April 2022, it is a wonderful tourist attraction yet somewhat debatable as a useful PTS for the people of Haifa.
The "Rachbalit" Cable car
The newest of the PTS in Haifa. The system has 150 cars, and you can catch one every 15 seconds. There are six stations. One is a technical depo.
Out of the five for people currently only three are open (Lev Ha-Mifrtas, Technion, Haifa University). There was a lot of debate about the necessity of this system cost wise. This was because that in theory the demand was supposed to be about 11,000 per day but in practice it is no more than 5000 per day – most of them commuters from out of Haifa. It is worth noticing that this PTS is also used as a low-cost tourist attraction giving some breath-taking views of Haifa just for the cost of public transportation fair.
The "Metronit"-BRT
From the year 2000 a massive passenger public transport system was planned for the city of Haifa in accordance with a wide change in the Haifa bus hubs. Even a light rail system was considered but finally the "Metronit"-BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) system was chosen. The project that started in 2007 – included upgrading intersections, paving unique bus lanes and bus stations – finished at 2013 and from December 2013 is operational. The "Metronit" That opened with 3 lines (now has 5) that give service to Haifa and the "Krayot" (Cities of Motskin, Ata, Bialik and Yam). On most of its line it travels a long a BRT lane that gives it the reliability and preference in intersections. If you travel during the mid-day, you will see how good this line in comparison to the private cars is. Unfortunately, most people in the upper residential area of Haifa still need to find a way to get to the system.
The "Carmelit"-Funicular
Funicular – unlike an underground train this one has no motor train pulling it, it is more like a cable car that has its cars running on a ground rail instead of hanging in the air. The Idea of connecting the lower City to the residential areas on the ridge was already thought of before the independence of the Israeli state. There is even some sort of mentioning of this in Theodor Hetzels book: "Altnoiland". After the state came to be this idea was raised again and construction started on July 1956 and on 6th of October 1959 the "Carmelit" was open to the public. It was active till 1986 when it was closed due to much required maintenance, reopened in 1992 and refurbished in 2018 due to a fire in 2017. The line has 6 stations from downtown Paris square all the way up to Carmel Center with stops near the "MadaTech" and Bnei Zion Hospital. One major drawback of this PTS is because the stations were built so many years ago, they have very - low to non - rate of handicap accessibility. And bringing the stations up to modern standards is unfortunately over cost worthy.
P.S. if this is your first time notice the angel of your posture in the start and the end of your ride.
The Bus
Prior to the state of Israel, the bus services were mostly run by private companies that received a franchise from the British mandate. There were quite a few cooperatives that each ran some of the lines of inner Haifa or to nearby towns. After the independence of Israel all these companies merged into one big transport company that is now EGED. In the 90's the MOT decided in order raise the competitivity in public transportation to privatize some of the PT bus clusters and many lines have been given to other companies that won the bids. In 2010 the Haifa-Yokneam and Haifa-Afula clusters have been transferred to OmniExpress and later Superbus. In Haifa the inner-city lines are still runed by EGED.
The Train
As of 1904 there has been a train in Haifa – The Vally train wich line ended in Haifa station. In 1937 when they built Haifa Central train station the y changed the name to Haifa East. This station is not operative anymore and it's housing now serves as the train museum and a possible starting point for this experience. Prior to the war of independence this line was connected all the way to Syria. During WWI the train system was mainly used for the war effort. Gradually after the war public was of the train came back. During the British mandate the Central Haifa train station as well as the tracks from Hadera East all the way to Haifa were built. Today there as many as six train stations in the Haifa Municipality area out of these four were built in concise with the relocation of other transportation hubs. Since the line runs just by the shore the train is not used as inner-city transportation but mainly as transport to Haifa suburbs and work prospects in Tel-Aviv.
In order to complete this Virtual Cache
you only need take five photos and answer just two questions not that hard.
Photos: take a photo of fingers frome pinky to fumb (one for eache mode) or your GPS while on board each mode of transportation (Train, BRT, Bus, Cable Car, Funicular) and make sure to show your surroundings.
Questions
waypoint one: N32° 47.594, E035° 02.103 Lev Ha Mifrats train station – find the elevator at the top side near to the stairs. what is behind the green?
waypoint two: N32° 45.736, E035° 01.081 Haifa university bus depot
on the northwest end of the depo an art piece is displayed in a glass box. What is the year on the display and how old is the sculpturer?
I am including photos maps of a possible route to find this cache in one go, however, you can do this in any combination you want.
Train Museum to Lev Ha-Mifrats CBS and Train station - BRT
Lev Ha-Mifrats Train station to Merkaz Ha-Shmona Train station - Train
Merkaz Ha-Shmona Train station to Merkaz Ha-Carmel - walk or BRT and Funicular
Merkaz Ha-Carmel to Haifa University - Bus
Haifa University to Merkazit Lev Ha-Mifrats - Cable Car
Near Posted coordinates
Near Ha-Shmona Center Train station
Near to the bus route
https://coord.info/GC9YGWW - This cache was archived
Near and inside Haifa university
https://coord.info/GC4Y99B - This cache was archived
https://coord.info/GC9Y9RX - This cache was archived
https://coord.info/GC6FG8N - This cache was archived
In the Technion – plan ahead especially if you want to do the multi.
https://coord.info/GC7G7EJ - This cache was archived
Near The Bay CBT
Virtual Rewards 3.0 - 2022-2023
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between March 1, 2022 and March 1, 2023. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 3.0 on the Geocaching Blog.