Hamas War

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Public Transportation Revolution in Jerusalem, Anarchy Reigns!

In two weeks major sections of bus routes will be amputated from the map.  No doubt that those in power neither travel public transport nor know Jerusalem well enough. If you're going to make a revolution, then do it well, not like the planners have done.  I can't find a map/chart/ad online right now, and I don't have time to search further.  My attempts at scanning the one in In Jerusalem have failed.  Anyway it got chopped into four pieces.

As threatened, all of the buses that travel on Sderot Herzl no longer will, because Egged promised not to compete with the train.  That means that people who live in places like Bayit V'Gan and Kiryat Yovel must get off the bus at Mt. Herzl and then get on the train if they want to go to the downtown area or the Machane Yehuda Market.  And if they want to go further, like to the Emek Refaim area or Talpiyot, they have to get on another bus on King George St./Blvd.

From what I can figure out, there isn't a whole new way of looking at the city, like extending the #21 from Givat Sharett to Talpiyot and Malcha, which would make it a one bus trip for those in Bayit V'Gan.

I hope that the Jerusalem Bus facebook page will have maps and instructions soon.  And the same for the Jerusalem Bus site.  And of course the Egged site ought to post everything immediately.  It should have been up on Friday when the ads were put in the local papers.

G-d willing, I'll be posting lots more about the changes.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Prediction: this will only increase use of private transportation, as people get even more frustrated with the stagnant transport system. This will in turn cause more congestion, slowing things down even more, plus more pollution as a bonus.

I heard Kol Yisrael radio correspondent, Oded Shachar, last wek on Reshet Bet, saying that he just came back from various European cities that have light rail systems. There, the trains come at a frequency of every 5 minutes, versus here every 15. Even during off hours and holidays, the European systems he reviewed had at the most an 8 minute gap between trains.

This is what happens when you can't afford to properly build and run a system in the first place. I've said it all along: it would still be better today and more affordable in the long run to throw the trains in the scrapheap, tear up the tracks and return to using energy efficient buses.

Hadassa said...

Shalom!
Taxi drivers must be enjoying an increased income, if they can still maneuver around the city...

Batya said...

Shy, you're right, and it will also keep more and more people out of the center of town.
Hadassa, most parts of the city don't feel the train at all.