HaMifratz Central Railway Station

HaMifratz Central Station sits at the Check Post junction in Haifa Bay, on the west side of Histadrut Boulevard.[4] The wider complex is a major interchange between rail, bus, and rapid-transit services, bringing together the coastal railway, the Jezreel Valley railway, city and interurban buses, and the Metronit bus rapid transit network.[5][2]

From the station, passengers can also board a cable car that connects the center of Haifa Bay to the edge of Mount Carmel near the University of Haifa.[5] The complex has been described as incorporating most of the transport modes available in Israel, making it a uniquely comprehensive transit facility for the northern region.[5]

The origins of the station lie in a financing agreement between Israel Railways and the developers of the Lev HaMifratz shopping center, under which the developers agreed to fund construction of a station near the Check Post area.[6] The station was planned on the Haifa–Nahariya coastal line, where most trains were expected to stop, and was also designed to serve the suburban railway connecting Haifa with the Krayot.[6]

The station opened in August 2001, and was reported at the time as the first railway station in Israel built wholly with private financing.[1] Israel Railways Authority director general Amos Ouzani remarked that "private financing allows us to build projects delayed by budgetary problems," noting the model's potential to advance infrastructure that had stalled due to budget constraints.[1]

A further transformation of the site came with the inauguration of the larger Lev HaMifratz transportation terminal in June 2018.[4] The new terminal integrated railway service, city and interurban buses, and Metronit lines into a unified interchange designed for passenger transfers.[4] At opening, the complex was linked by two bridges — one to the Jezreel Valley railway station and one to a parking facility with hundreds of spaces.[7] Two additional bridges, connecting to the Lev HaMifratz shopping center and the coastal railway platform, were still under construction at inauguration and were expected to be completed in the following months.[7] The parking area is accessible via a sunken passage connecting the Carmel Tunnels, the Container Junction, and Highway 22, and the entire complex was built to be accessible to people with disabilities.[7]

HaMifratz Central Station serves as the northern terminus and network junction for the Jezreel Valley railway, which connects Beit She'an with Haifa Bay and joins the national rail network at the Check Post junction.[8] Construction of that line involved approximately 60 kilometers of track, 26 bridges with a combined length of nearly six kilometers, and three tunnels totaling 900 meters; work began in 2011 and took about five years.[8] A 2016 report noted that expansion of the station to accommodate the new line was expected to be completed by the end of 2017.[8]

The station is also a stop on the coastal line running between Nahariya and Tel Aviv and beyond. When rail service to Karmiel was launched, the route passed through HaMifratz as part of a corridor running from Karmiel via Ahihud and Kiryat Motzkin, then through Haifa's stations, onward through Hadera and Tel Aviv, and ultimately to Be'er Sheva.[9] Preparations for Karmiel service were reported to have lasted nearly 20 years before scheduled service commenced.[9]

As of a June 2026 report, the wider HaMifratz complex handled roughly 30,000 passengers per day across approximately 90 bus routes, two heavy-rail lines, four Metronit lines, and the cable car.[2] The Nofit light rail line, then under construction, was expected to join the complex and link Haifa, Nof HaGalil, and Nazareth.[2]

HaMifratz Central Station has been designated as a key node in several major planned rail projects. A 2017 report described a proposed Haifa–Nazareth light rail that would begin at HaMifratz Central and run parallel to the Haifa bypass road toward the northern Kiryat Ata interchange, serving as a link between Haifa and Nazareth with both interurban and urban sections.[10]

More ambitiously, a 2024 report described plans to redevelop the station as the terminus for a new ultra-fast rail line being built by Israel Railways, with trains capable of reaching 250 kilometers per hour and a projected Tel Aviv journey time of approximately 40 minutes — about half the then-current travel time.[3] The plan called for trains to use tunnels for most of the stretch from Hof HaCarmel beach to the station, a design intended to open part of the coastline to the public and improve pedestrian access between downtown Haifa and the rehabilitated coast.[3]

A related plan approved by the National Infrastructure Planning Council in 2021 similarly envisioned a fast Nahariya–Tel Aviv service via Haifa, with a projected Haifa–Tel Aviv journey time of 30 minutes with one stop in Hadera, also at speeds up to 250 kilometers per hour.[11] The underground routing was preferred in part to protect open spaces, restore public access to the seacoast, and free land for housing.[11] Planning council chair Shlomi Heisler stated at the time: "Today, the railway tracks are a buffer between Haifa and the sea, and the plan will allow the city of Haifa to be connected to its main asset — the sea."[11] Both the 2021 and 2024 reports present these figures as plans and projections; the projected travel times differ between them and have not been reconciled in available sources.[3][11]

On March 3, 2025, a terrorist attack occurred at the Lev HaMifratz transit hub. The assailant exited a bus and stabbed people on the platform, killing one man and injuring four others. The attacker was then shot dead by a bus-station security guard and an armed passerby.[12]