Responding to requests from MK Rav Yisrael Eichler, Egged has announced the status quo pertaining to the first buses from the Kosel on motzei Shabbos Parshas Beha’aloscha will remain the same and riders will be able to head home without having to pay with a smartcard.
Egged recently announced that the Ministry of Transportation called to eliminate the program which permits mispallalim who walk to the Kosel from Geula, Givat Shaul, Har Nof and other areas to ride home without having to pay.
Under the new arrangement, these first buses will be free of charge to riders, subsidized by Egged. They will not be regular service lines but they will simply leaving the Kosel and dropping people off. Eichler adds Egged has promised that no one who walked to the Kosel and wishes to get on a bus on motzei shabbos without money will be left behind. He adds the first free buses will also accommodate those who end Shabbos according to Rabbeinu Tam.
Eichler concludes that it is sad that Egged has to pay for this since the “anti-Jewish government in Eretz Yisrael is unwilling to pay to bring mispallalim home from the Kosel after Shabbos and the Ministry of Transportation has prohibited Egged from doing so”. He explains Egged is picking up the tab for the time being to circumvent the state order to stop the service, seeking to continue accommodating those walking to the Kosel on Shabbos.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
I thought people were supposed to pay during the week?
They do have to pay during the week, but apparently they don’t do it, and for reasons that are beyond understanding Eichler seems to think the govt should pay the bill for the theft.
Egged should put up clear posters that explain the bus is not free but rather needs to be payed for later in the week, see how many people pay and if the problem persists stop the free busses.
Maybe they could even have accurate accounting by having everyone take a “0” ticket which they then later pay for…
In another few months they’ll again attack charedim for not paying up during the week. This is their typical way to vilify charedim.
When charedim wanted to start their own private buses several years ago, Egged was up in arms, with court cases which ended up with them promising to have separate seating in charedi areas. They indeed had it for a while and stopped it with their usual attack on charedim and maligning them. Private buses in Israel’s ‘democracy’ is still not permitted since Egged has the sole monopoly and Dan in the Tel Aviv/Bnei Brak area.