Haifa – Akko railway line

Haifa – Akko

Route length:

20.2 km

1050 mm

Track width:
from 1937/1941 :

1,435 mm ( standard gauge ) to Qirjat
Motzkin 1937, to Naʿaman 1941 (additionally, three- rail track until 1948)


		Coastal tram on the main line from Beersheba via Tel Aviv


	0.0 0.0	Haifa Mizrach (East) 1904–1990s, today the Israeli Railway Museum

		Haifa marshalling yard
		Connection of refinery and power station
	2.0	Jezreel Valley Railway to Darʿā
		Connection to Kischonhafen
		New Jezreel Valley Railway to Beit Sche'an
		Haifa-Merkazit haMifratz since 2001
	5.0	Kishon

		Connection to Iraq Petroleum Refinery BaZa "N and Deschanim Chemical Plant

	5.4
	5.5	Kishon repair shop since 1908
	7.4	Haifa Chutzot haMifratz since 2001
	8.0	Haifa Qirjat Chaim since 1937
	9.1	Qirjat Motzkin since 1937

	17.4	Mischmar Hajam


		Karmielbahn to Karmiel


	19.1	Coastal railway of the main line to Nahariya or HBT line to Tripoli (1941–1948)

		Naʿaman
	20.2	Akko 1913-1915, 1919-1941

The Haifa – Akko railway was built by the Hejaz Railway and therefore with a gauge of 1050 mm. It connected two important settlement centers in Palestine . Today it has largely merged into the Israeli main line Naharija – Be'er Sheva .

history

After the Jezreel Valley Railway Haifa – Dar'a through the Jezreel plain proved to be an economic success, the Ottoman Empire extended it from Haifa to Akko in 1911–1913 by 18 km . For this purpose material was used that had been procured in 1908 for the planned extension of the Hejaz Railway from Medina to Mecca and stored in Haifa after the extension of the Hejaz Railway was no longer implemented for political reasons.

During the First World War , the highest priority for the High Porte was to supply the garrisons opposite the British in the border area with the Sultanate of Egypt by land. The thrust of the Ottoman troops was the Suez Canal, which was to be made unusable for British ships. To do this, the railway had to be brought as close as possible. Since the British Navy dominated the coast of the Levant and so the supply of building material from Europe by sea was not possible, u. a. The Haifa – Akko line was also dismantled in 1915 in order to reuse its rails and sleepers for the expansion of the Ottoman military railway in the south.

When more and more Jews immigrated to Palestine after the First World War, they mainly settled in the area of Haifa and Akko. The line between the two cities was rebuilt in 1919 by Palestine Railways (PR), again with a gauge of 1050 mm, like the Jezreel Valley Railway, to which there was only a connection at the time. In November 1920, the new standard-gauge coastal line reached Haifa from the south. In 1937, the Haifa Merkaz (center) station opened one and a half kilometers west of Haifa station, which from then on carried the addition of Mizrach (i.e. east).

All cities developed dynamically. In the 1931 census, the city of Tel Aviv had 46,101 inhabitants, while Haifa had 50,403. German refugees and immigrants from other countries, including Arab countries, drove the number of Haifans to 145,140 by 1947, while Tel Aviv had a population of 160,000 as early as 1939. The Haifa – Akko route saw the most dramatic increase in traffic in Palestine. In 1937, the line from Haifa Mizrach to Qirjat Motzkin was expanded as a three- rail track, also for standard gauge vehicles, and ten trains served this connection every day, while seven trains drove the entire route between Haifa and Akko every day.

West wing of the reception building of Haifa Mizrach train station, the central wing of which was destroyed in the attack on September 20, 1946, 2008

Akko Railway Station

Since the British Army had laid a standard-gauge line over the Sinai Railway to Haifa in the course of the First World War , the PR decided in 1937 to upgrade the line to Kiryat Motzkin as a three -rail track , where the British military facilities were located.

During the Second World War , the line was the starting point for the standard-gauge Haifa – Beirut – Tripoli railway , which in turn was commissioned by the British military. The line was built from September 1941 by railroad military contingents from the British Commonwealth and civil engineers. The three-rail track from Haifa to Akko was up to the connection Na'aman used and from there on out, the standard gauge line to the north. The Haifa-Beirut section went into operation in August 1942. Civilian operations were opened to Nahariya on July 1, 1945 .

After the interruption of traffic caused by the Palestine War and the independence of the new state of Israel , Israel Railways also took over the Haifa-Akko route. The narrow-gauge operation was no longer resumed and the line was now operated as part of the emerging north-south main connection, the Naharija – Be'er Sheva railway , operated by Israel Railways. The old terminal station in Akko was given up and a new through station was established east of the city, which has been expanded in recent years.

literature

Paul Cotterell: The Railways of Palestine and Israel. Tourret Books, Abingdon 1986, ISBN 0-905878-04-3 .
Walter Rothschild : Arthur Kirby and the last years of Palestine Railways 1945-1948. Self-published, Berlin 2009 (also: Diss. King's College, London 2007).