Residents of the chareidi Shomron community of Tel Tzion are angered over the cancelation of a direct bus line to Yerushalayim.

Residents call the move an “arbitrary and scandalous decision by the Office of the Head of the Binyamin Regional Council Avi Roeh explains, the only route that took the residents of Tel Zion directly to Jerusalem was canceled”.

The 144 bus was a unique line, specially adapted for the residents of the chareidi community of Tel Zion. For five years, it would take residents from Tel Zion directly to Jerusalem. The unique route of the line was canceled, without notice and without any warning.

The line that began as a direct line from Tel Zion to Jerusalem served the girls and daughters of the seminaries, kollel students and the yeshiva students who hurried to work during the morning hours, thus saving an extra 18 minutes of driving in the surrounding communities. As a result of the cancellation of the special track, the children from school to school and the small children are forced to part from the parents who travel to Jerusalem early in the morning.

Resident Matityahu Gabbai explains “Tel Tzion residents woke up to a new reality and hundreds of daily commuters to Yerushalayim including students to talmid torah and girls to seminar as well as those heading to medical clinics for treatment, the elderly and everyone leaving at that time wishing to save the 18 minutes traveling via Kochav Yaakov lost the only direct bus to the capital”.

The bus line will now be an additional 18 minutes with the cancelation of the community’s only direct bus daily because upon completion of picking up Tel Tzion riders, it then enters Kochav Yaakov.

Community representatives are turning to Egged, Regional Council officials and other to fight for the restoration of the direct line in the morning.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)