Jezreel Railway , or Valley Railway ( Hebrew רכבת העמק , Rakevet ha-екmek ; Arabic. خط سكك حديد مرج بن عامر ) is a historic railway line in Ottoman and British Palestine, as well as a modern railway built in 21st century. It runs along the Jezreel Valley . The historical line was a segment of the Haifa - Dara route, which itself was a segment of the large Hijaz railway [1] . The length of the segment was 115 kilometers.
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The Haifa-Dara line was built at the beginning of the 20th century, and connected the port of Haifa with the main part of the Hijaz railway Damascus - Medina . Like the entire Hijaz railway, it was a narrow gauge line 1,050 mm wide. The last station in Mandate Palestine was El Hamma , today's Hamat Gader . Planning and construction took four years. The railway was opened on October 15, 1905 and operated until 1948.
A large-scale project for the construction of a new standard railway gauge from Haifa to Beit Shean along approximately the same route began in 2011 [2] and ended in April 2016 [3]
Construction work began in 2011 and cost four billion shekels [1] .
October 16, 2016 it is planned to launch an updated line [ specify ] . [four]
Content
- 1 History
- 2 Historical stations
- 3 See also
- 4 notes
- 5 Links
History
The plan to connect Haifa with Damascus Railway arose in the 60s of the 19th century. The first attempts to pave this road were made in 1882 when the Sorsok family from Beirut, who had bought land along the Jezreel Valley by that time, received a license to build the road. However, due to financial difficulties, the construction of the road did not begin, and the license expired.
In 1888, Joseph Elias, a Christian from Beirut, who sold it to Pilling from London, received a new license. Pilling founded a company listed on the London Stock Exchange as Railway Syrian Ottoman. According to the first plans, Akko was the starting point of the branch to Damascus, but Haifa was chosen as the final version, despite the fact that at that time Akko was the largest city in the region, located close to agricultural territories and having access to the sea.
Haifa at that time was a small city, and access to it was limited due to the swamps in the south of Haifa and the Kishon River in the north. However, as the company's engineers envisaged, shipping would not use sailing ships, but steamboats, which required a new port, and the even relief of the Haifa coast would be more suitable than the rocky coast of Acre.
The official ceremony of starting the construction of the railway in Damascus took place in 1892 in Haifa. The company built a pier in Haifa, which took the load for the construction of the road.
The British, paving the first nine kilometers of roads, suspended construction due to financial difficulties. In 1898, another attempt was made to continue construction, but it was also unsuccessful. After that, the fate of the project depended on the Hijaz Railway and the Ottoman authorities.
On May 1, 1900, the Turkish sultan Abdul-Hamid II announced his intention to lay a railway from Damascus to the holy places on the Arabian Peninsula : Mecca and Medina . The road was supposed not only to help the pilgrims, but also to strengthen the influence of Turkey in the region.
The engineer Heinrich Meisner was appointed head of construction. Building materials and equipment for laying the road were delivered through the railway from Damascus to Beirut, but its carrying capacity was insufficient; moreover, the French company containing it has canceled a 45% discount on freight for large companies. These difficulties forced the Turkish authorities to find another outlet to the sea. The choice fell on Haifa. In 1901, construction of the railway from Haifa to the city of Dara (Jordan) began. Haifa port, enlarged and improved by Meisner, was used to deliver building materials. The length of the railway — 161 kilometers from Haifa to Daria — was 100 km shorter than the similar Haifa-Beirut railway.
By 1904, the construction of the Haifa-Beit Shean-Zemah section was completed. On October 15, 1905, the first train arrived from Haifa to Damascus. This event was immortalized by the installation of a commemorative marble plaque, which is still located at Haifa-Mizrah station; praises of Sultan Abdul-Hamid II, the initiator of the construction of the Hijaz railway, are carved on it.
After that, Haifa became the second largest (after Damascus) railway station, but almost the first in importance. All construction materials, cars, locomotives for the Hijaz road were delivered through the Haifa port to the Dara station, and from there to the construction of the main Hijaz highway. The Damascus-Medina road, with a total length of 1302 km, was opened in 1908.
Meisner engineer for his contribution to the construction of the railway received the title " Pasha ".
Historic Stations
- Balad al-Sheikh station
- Nesher Station
- Yagur Station
- Elroi Station
- Kiryat Haroshet Station
- Kfar Yehoshua Station
- Kfar Baruch Station
- Afula Station
- Ein Harod Stations
- Tel Yosef Stations
- Shata Station
- Ha Sade Station
- Beit shean
- Beit Yosef Station
- Gesher Station
- Naharaim Station
- Al Dalamia Station
- Arlozorov Station
- Stations Jordan River
- Zemach Station
- Al Hamma Station
- Haifa Station
Map (scale not met) of the historic road - stations are marked with black circles.
Haifa East Railway Station in 2006
Passengers at the railway station Yagur (1939)
Route of the renovated Jezreel Valley Railway.
Zemakh station in 2006
Train station, Nesher
Kfar Yehoshua Station, 2006
Park on the railway line in Afula 2006
See also
- Hijaz railway
- Jezreel Valley
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Break-in of the Valley Railroad linking Haifa and Beit Shean begins.
- ↑ Mizrahi, Yossi (Reporter) (2011-09-27).
- ↑ Goldberg, Jeremaya (April 13, 2016).
- ↑ Launch of the updated line (inaccessible link) . Date of treatment September 28, 2016. Archived October 1, 2016.