It is amazing but nonetheless true – the Jerusalem light rail operator, CityPass, has earned seven million shekels in fines in the past four years. This according to a query posed by MK (Yahadut Hatorah) Uri Maklev, to which the response was given by Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz.

Maklev turned to Minister Katz in the form of a letter, writing that in 2011, CityPass began operating in Jerusalem and since that time, many summonses have been issued, with a certain percentage given unjustifiably. He then asked to probe how many summonses were issued to date and other facts pertaining to fines on the light rail.

In his response, Katz states in the four years of the light rail’s operation, 68,635 summonses were issued, amounting to 6,932,599 shekels. He added the record year was in 2015, during which almost 26,000 summonses were issued. During the first five months of 2017, no less than 7,307 summonses were issued, which will result in about 18,000 annually.

Katz added only 137 requests to cancel summonses them were honored, pointing out that this out of 3,000 requests filed to cancel the summonses.

Maklev points out that in most cases, honest people with problematic smart cards were issued fines. Maklev adds, “The light rail is a state-of-the-art transportation tool in Israel, but the technological systems are outdated. The company requires unskilled citizens to pay using outdated machines with faults, and if there is a problem, the citizen must pay fines”.

He concludes, “This is a scandal, the summonses are given arbitrarily, recklessly, and it can be said that it is inhumane, disgraceful, and even cruel, and fines are disproportionate to the cost of travel”.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)