Wikipedia's first sentence called it “subway”. Today it says “underground funicular railway in haifa”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “An underground funicular railway in Haifa, Israel”. It now reads “Underground funicular railway in Haifa, Israel”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2005 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2005
Carmelit is a subway (underground metro ) in Haifa , Israel . It was originally opened in 1956 ( or 1959 , according to other sources ), but was closed in 1986 after showing signs of aging. It was reopened after extensive renovations in September 1992 . Because much of Haifa is built on top of the Carmel mountain, the Carmelit (named after this mountain) is a peculiar subway system that goes uphill - an underground funicular that works much like an elevator . This also made the Carmelit cars have a very distinctive slanted design. The altitude difference between the first and last stations is 274 meters. The Carmelit is one of the smallest subway systems in the world, having only four cars, six stations and its single tunnel spanning a mere 1800 meters. These four cars are divided into two two-car trains, which run on single track with a short double track section to allow trains to cross. The small number of stations means that the Carmelit only serves a small part of Haifa - what used to be the important population and business centers at the time it was designed. Nowadays, the vast majority of people living in Haifa are not close to any of those stations, making it very lightly used by today's Haifa population. There have been talks of extending the Carmelit's tunnels to reach more population centers, but such an extension was never done, primarily for economic reasons. Instead, the most widely used public transportation system in Haifa are Egged buses which cover most of the city. Despite the Carmelit being a very small subway system, it is not the smallest in the world - the Istanbul Tunel , spanning two stations and 573 meters, is smaller. However, since Istanbul also has a newer and bigger (though separate) subway system, sometimes the Haifa Carmelit is nevertheless mentioned as the smallest subway in the world. In 2004, the Carmelit is still the only subway in Israel. There are plans for a subway or light rail systems in Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem , but those have yet to materialize.1
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 17739352.
The opening as it stood in 2010 16 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
מרכז הכרמל Carmel Center 237 גולומב Golomb 194 מסדה Masada 118 הנביאים Hanevi'im 70 הדר עירייה Hadar-City Hall 63 עיר תחתית Downtown 12 500 m Haifa Central This diagram: view talk edit The Carmelit is an underground funicular railway in Haifa , Israel .It opened in 1959, and closed in 1986 after showing signs of aging.It reopened in September 1992 after extensive renovations.It is the only subway in Israel.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 352800190.
The opening as it stood in 2015 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
מרכז הכרמל Carmel Center 237 גולומב Golomb 194 מסדה Masada 118 הנביאים Hanevi'im 70 הדר עירייה Hadar-City Hall 63 עיר תחתית Downtown 12 500 m Haifa Central This diagram: view talk edit The Carmelit ( ) is an underground funicular railway in Haifa , Israel . Construction started in 1956 and ended in 1959.The Carmelit was closed in 1986 after showing signs of aging and reopened in September 1992 after extensive renovations.It was closed in March 2015 due to a fault in the cable.There is no official schedule on its reopening.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 669326067.
The opening as it stood in 2020 4 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Construction started in 1956 and ended in 1959. It is currently the only underground transit system in Israel (until the expected 2021 opening of Tel Aviv Light Rail ).The Carmelit has closed down for repair on three separate occasions."זינוק של 20% בנסיעה בכרמלית" [20% Jump in Carmelit Trips] (in Hebrew).Scan of original typed document. : CS1 maint: postscript ( link )
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 936270151.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
An underground funicular railway in Haifa, Israel For the religious order, see Carmelites . מרכז הכרמל Carmel Center 237 גולומב Golomb 194 מסדה Masada 118 הנביאים Hanevi'im 70 הדר עירייה Hadar-City Hall 63 עיר תחתית Downtown 12 500 m Haifa Central This diagram: view talk edit The Carmelit ( Arabic : كرمليت) is an underground funicular railway in Haifa , Israel . Construction started in 1956 and ended in 1959. It is the oldest underground transit system in the Middle East and used to be the only underground transit system in Israel, until the 2023 opening of Tel Aviv Light Rail . The Carmelit has closed down for repair on three occasions. "זינוק של 20% בנסיעה בכרמלית" [20% Jump in Carmelit Trips]. Scan of original typed document.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1172967484.
The opening as it stood in 2025
Underground funicular railway in Haifa, Israel For the religious order, see Carmelites . מרכז הכרמל Carmel Center 237 גולומב Golomb 194 מסדה Masada 118 הנביאים Hanevi'im 70 הדר עירייה Hadar-City Hall 63 עיר תחתית Downtown 12 500 m Haifa Central This diagram: view talk edit The Carmelit ( Hebrew : כַּרְמְלִית Arabic : كرمليت) is an underground funicular railway in Haifa , Israel . Construction started in 1956 and ended in 1959. It is the oldest funicular railway and underground transit system in the Middle East and was the only underground transit system in Israel until the 2023 opening of Tel Aviv Light Rail . The Carmelit has closed down for repair on three occasions. "זינוק של 20% בנסיעה בכרמלית" [20% Jump in Carmelit Trips]. Scan of original typed document.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1280220347. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “subway”. Today it says “underground funicular railway in haifa”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “An underground funicular railway in Haifa, Israel”. It now reads “Underground funicular railway in Haifa, Israel”. Read the current article and compare.
2005
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2005, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
subway
Now
underground funicular railway in haifa
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
