The Agan HaAyalot neighborhood of Givat Ze’ev is relatively new, with the first residents moving in about two years ago. One of the sales points was billed as ‘being like a part of Jerusalem’ only 15 minutes away by car. Today, many of the disgruntled residents report that were mislead, for they understood they would enjoy the same level of municipal services, with an emphasis on adequate bus service, which is essential for the chareidi tzibur.
Today, residents are getting together in the hope of finding a way to get some satisfaction, stating that due to traffic realities, the 15 minute drive is an hour by bus. They insist a community such as Modi’in Illit, which is actually geographically further from the capital, the travel time to Yerushalayim is significantly less.
Residents last week held an emergency kenos Kikar Shabbat reports, dubbed a kenos of residents of the Agan HaAyalot neighborhood of the New Givat Ze’ev. In attendance was Jerusalem Councilman Shlomo Rosenstein, who also holds the public transportation portfolio for the chareidi sector in the capital. In addition, Rabbi Yitzchak Brenner (coordinator of Jerusalem neighborhoods and head of Jerusalem Degel HaTorah office) and Givat Ze’ev Councilman (Shlomei Emunim) Rabbi Shlomo Breizel were present.
A main bone of contention was that the route of the 371 bus to the capital, their only option during the morning hours, makes too long a circle “to put it mildly” inside Givat Ze’ev, over 30 minutes. Rosenstein promised the disgruntled residents that in the very near future, Egged would begin running buses and there will be an amazing improvement in bus service.
Rosenstein added that in talks with representatives of the Ministry of Transportation, 10 direct lines will be introduced into the community that will run on an hourly schedule in addition to existing service. In total, 60 buses daily will serve the community.
Today, there are two direct lines to the capital and the others buses all run through the community, taking too long a route, also entering the old Givat Ze’ev areas.
There are about 1,500 residents in the new area today and neighborhood representatives told public officials they are entitled to acceptable bus service to and from the capital.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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One Response
Thank you to whoever wrote this article to bring to the attention of the English-speaking frum world a problem that we are truly suffering with. There is one major point that was missed in this article though and that is that this whole circle that the bus takes goes through the heart of the chiloni portions of Givat Ze’ev, with passengers of these neighborhoods going on the bus in various states of undress and speaking to and around our children in ways I can’t even mention here. It is not a necessity and there are alternatives. It is just Egged’s way of putting the chareidim in their place. We are forced to share the route with the other chareidi neighborhood in the area, adding an extra 7-8 minutes to an already over-long route.
The problem exists particularly on the return route, where children who have already spent a full day learning, having left the house at 7:30 in the morning are returning on over-stuffed buses, with drivers who don’t care if they leave children standing in the rain at bus stops, with no hope of another bus for another hour, as many buses simply bypass stops, whether full or not (I have personally been left at a stop at 10:00 at night, with the next bus coming 1 hour after and nothing coming even close to the area for 30 minutes. This neighborhood is at the bottom of a mountain and wild pigs and foxes have been seen to roam on this mountain, so it is not possible to walk for 30 minutes down the hill if you could even get close to the top of it on a different bus line.
Egged already provides bus service here, it is hoped that Egged Ta’avura will step in and provide improved service to us here. We can only hope.