Many mispallalim wanted to head back home following shachris in Meron on Lag B’Omer but when they arrived at the buses they learned there were no drivers. They waited for two hours until the drivers appeared and permitted them to load buses.
The number of commuters waiting continued to grow with time, and police dispatched mounted troops to maintain order as tired mispallalim became agitated, adding to the tension in the parking lot area.
At the time of this report no one is explaining why the drivers vanished, compelling mispallalim to wait outside for hours.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
Buses but no drivers = drivers not working. Most of those drivers would not have been in condition to drive.
If they left Yerushalayim of Bne Brak or anywhere else in the mercaz after SHabbat, they likely had maybe a 3 hour Shabbat shluf under their belts, run from their houses after havdalah, left with their people around 9pm, arrived in the Meron area around 12am 1amish.
Then where do they stay, sleep etc I have no idea. Some obviously turned around and took people back south.
Its simple logistics, that when everyone wants to leave at once, they simply cant. You arrive spaced apart, you can only really leave spaced apart.
Public transit is limited. Go with a chartered tour, and you dont worry about getting on a bus then, since you have a reserved spot and a set time to leave. I took a group and we arrived there 10:15pm (we left from the north), and I told everyone we were leaving at 1:30am, so everyone was on the bus by 1:50am and we got out of there. After dropping folks off at their hotel, I got home by 3:15am, and had to get up to do my regular work schedule that starts at 7am. After doing my morning runs, I was dreading a call to take another group tonight to MEron and back. I am beat, will do it if told to, but honestly can only do it because I know of the need, I would not choose to go out for another run to Meron unless my other schedules were cancelled.
PinhazErez you are right for the most part but for not a single driver to show up sounds a little fishy, sort of collusion.
I was there, it’s true that was some waiting involved for buses, but as a whole the situation in Meron, transportation included, was very very organized this year and it made the whole event much more enjoyable. Zaka gave out free wrist bands for small children with their names on them should they get lost, huge tarps were put up in many places to provide shade for the crowds, and the streets were clear from traffic. It was an amazing 24 hours in Meron, if you were there, you were zoche to amazing simcha and tefilla! Let’s be realistic, it’s a huge endeavor to get such large numbers of people in and out of there, and everyone involved did a great job. Let’s take the simcha with us and see the good, no more kvetching!