“Hundreds of families including children and infants” waited for buses from Bnei Brak back to their homes in Bet Shemesh, Ashdod and Yerushalayim, the daily HaMevaser reports. They waited for hours for buses that simply did not arrive.
Rav Shimon Stern of the Rabbinical Transportation Committee was among those waiting with their families for the 497 bus to Bet Shemesh. The rav explains it was a sad sight, seeing little children seating and lying on the sidewalk as they waited for hours, adding that between 9:00pm-12:00am, only one bus passed. Later on, another bus passed but it was packed, “with 80 people instead of 50”.
When buses finally arrived explains Rabbi Stern, they were too few in number and following hours of waiting, the commuters were then subjected to yet additional derision, having to pack inside the vehicle, 80 per bus with children seated three and four to a seat. The rabbi made certain to explain the crowd was not unusually large, but the buses simply did not come, “as was the case on motzei Shabbos after Lag B’Omer last year”. Rabbi Stern stated that between 9:00pm-11:00pm, a bus is expected to arrive every 20 minutes but until midnight, only two buses passed by.
Perhaps it is appropriate to add that in the latest state comptroller’s report released about two weeks ago, mention is made of an estimated 98,000 rides that never occurred due to Egged’s failure to dispatch buses as required. The state comptroller called on the Transportation to get serious about monitoring Egged, which receives handsome state subsidies, calling to move to a computerized system that can monitor just how many passengers are transported, seeking to put an end to Egged’s receipt of funds for rides that never occur.
Rabbi Stern and his colleagues on the committee are planning to file suit against Egged in small claims court, urging commuters to do the same, explaining it is the only way to compel the bus company to begin complying with schedules. Anyone wishing to contact the Rabbinical Transportation Committee to report incidents or to obtain guidance may call 02-991-9099.
Egged has pointed the finger of blame at Bnei Brak City Hall, insisting the city has not provided Egged with a parking facility for buses to have them on hand for motzei Shabbos service.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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6 Responses
Get moving Egged and stop complaining.
In Israel, as in most European countries (I don’t know how it works in the US), bus lines are sold by tender by the Ministry of Transportation for a certain period of time.
Companies (such as Egged, Superbus, Veolia, Egged-Taavura, Dan, Kavim) are free to enter bids in this tender.
If a company enters a bid in the enter, that means that they must be willing to provide that service. That would seem logical.
By comparison: if I participate in a tender to renovate my neighbor’s house in 15 days, and I win the tender, I have an obligation to renovate his house in 15 days. I cannot *then* point to others and shift the blame to them. It is *me* who participated in the tender to renovate his house in 15 days – now it is *me* who has to fulfill this obligation.
Similarly, if Egged is unable to provide the service *it itself promised* to deliver, to the Ministry of Transportation in the tender the ministry issued, then Egged should not have participated in the tender.
I’m close to filing a small claims court case against Egged due to what happened to me two weeks ago – see the coffee room for details. http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/mehadrin-buses-too-much-for-me
I have to add one thing: I fully agree with #1 that we should demand from Egged that lines in/to/for/from chareidi areas should only start at least 90 minutes after Shabbos ends.
It is very painful to see how chareidim in Jerusalem are waiting for a bus at city bus stops right after davening Maariv on motzei shabbos. Like, 15 – 20 minutes after Shabbos. How do they expect that there will be a bus there whose driver did not have to be mechalel shabbos to get there on time?
#1 the report says quote: between 9:00pm-12:00am, only one bus passed. Later on, another bus passed but it was packed, “with 80 people instead of 50″.
so your point is irelevent for this story,but you might have a point about overoll.
#1, you forgot to mention that driver also has to go the mikveh or at least take a shower before going to work.
most drivers are arabs so they definitely don’t keep rabbeinu tam.
in israel the torah observant jews are considered sub-class. there is no need to respect them and no need to service their needs at all. on the contrary any time the chareidim gather together and try to use some clout the government comes and squashes them very brutaly. i guess that’s how we remember that were still in galus.