MK Uri Maklev told Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz during a session of the Knesset Finance Committee “Public transport companies are supposed to pay royalties of NIS hundreds of millions to the Ministry of Transportation and in order to avoid losses, they compromise service to passengers”.

Maklev praised Katz’s efforts to improve public transportation, but cited “unfortunately, there is still a gap between his efforts and the results for passengers continue to complain”.

Maklev made his remarks to Katz, who visited a special session of the Knesset committee addressing public transport.

Maklev explained that despite the minister’s continuous efforts, there are still complaints pertaining to availability, frequency, accessibility as well as service, reliability and a lack of information. These are just some of the complaints.

Maklev adds he fails to understand how huge sums in royalties are paid yet these funds are not used for the betterment of the passengers. One example he gave is Netiv Express which has paid NIS 250 million in such royalties – questioning why these funds were not used to further improve the system. He stressed these are not gas exploration companies but public transportation companies that are supposed to provide a service to the public. Maklev fears that having to pay these enormous sums to the ministry compels these companies to cut services towards avoiding incurring losses.

One of the people present for the meeting was MK (Yisrael Beitenu) Hamad Amar, who asked Katz how it is that he is now in his third term in this cabinet post, his eighth year as Minister of Transportation, yet he continues to always point in the direction of others when facing a problem. He mentioned how he recently announced in Knesset that he was looking into privatizing driving examiners due to the failure in this area and why it took him eight years to begin addressing this.

Amar questioned why it has taken eight years to begin addressing poor service and the ongoing and increasing complaints of passengers around the country. He mentioned the long waits for buses, the unreliable service, and many other issues.

Following the meeting Yisrael Beitenu released a statement to the media further attacking Katz, who the party feels has failed miserably in his cabinet post as the nation’s Minister of Transportation.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)