Elad Malka, the man behind the public transportation revolution in Jerusalem, writes about the public transportation prices reform of the Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of Finance
Posted on: 5.4.22 21:10
The Ministry of Transportation is reforming the fares in public transportation and calls them “equal way”, after the main criterion in the reform – equal payment according to the number of kilometers traveled by the passenger. What will be there and what is good, bad and ugly for Jerusalemites?
the good: First, you will part with the accumulated value, the same amount that you charged on a multi-line basis and used to travel by public transport. So far, the accumulated value has given a 20 percent discount on the cost of travel, so in practice the cost of internal travel within the city has risen to NIS 4.8 instead of NIS 6. From now on, the cost of a single trip within Jerusalem will be NIS 5.5, a little more expensive, the possibility of switching between buses for 90 minutes will still be preserved. Regular passengers who prefer free monthly will indeed be given a dramatic discount: instead of NIS 208 per month – only NIS 99 per month. The rationale is clear, encouraging regular travel on public transport.
Jerusalem will be defined as one of many species in which the tariff will be similar. Beyond that, a nationwide free monthly will cost NIS 225, when the discounts for children and youth will continue and the price for them will be half the official price. People aged 75 and over will travel completely free within the area, paying half the amount for a nationwide free holiday.
There will be a pilot (of course in Tel Aviv, not in Jerusalem) for payment by credit card instead of using a multi-line card, with the aim of allowing 90 minutes of transfer between buses based on the credit card.
The bad: Contrary to the reform of public transport price focus, the biggest ill evil of public transport is not the price. Everyone who travels by public transport in Europe has noticed that the price of public transport in Israel is very significantly lower. The main reason for this is that in our country, the state subsidizes about 70 percent of the cost of travel, while in the West it is customary to subsidize only about 50 percent. The serious problem with public transportation is the quality of service: reliability, frequency, line planning, bus quality and the like.
If we had adopted the Western model of subsidizing public transportation, instead of the state financing 12 out of 18 shekels that the trip costs, it would have financed only 9 shekels and the price of the trip would have risen to nine shekels as well. This change alone would have allowed for a 25 percent improvement in service quality. In the current situation, the low price coupled with the poor service make public transportation a product for the weaker sections only. The middle class and basically everyone who can run away from public transportation like wildfire and the result the Jerusalemites know most of all: traffic jams.
The Ugly: Transport Minister Merav Michaeli and Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman brand the reform as a transition to equal pay, hinting at historical distortions in the form of excessive subsidies for public transportation in a variety of cities – especially ultra-Orthodox cities and peripheral cities. If the goal is to subsidize public transportation for the weaker sections – then this is actually a good way to do it. If the goal is to streamline public transportation for the middle class and encourage it to move to public transportation, then the solution is to improve the quality of service, a step not included in the reform.
The Ministry of Transportation has a lot of work to do to streamline public transportation services. From a Jerusalem perspective, a public transportation route on Begin Road, the imposition of congestion charges as will be the case in Tel Aviv, the abolition of the ban on private drivers to drive for a fee and the acceleration of the tender to bring a third public transportation operator into the city. All of these are completely absent from the reform and their importance exceeds the service counters.
- The author is Elad Malka, a former member of the City Council, the figure behind the public transportation revolution in Jerusalem, the director of the public lobby “Our Interest” at present
The deal you dreamed of is waiting here. Enter the real estate arena of Jerusalem
For updates on all the hottest news >>
Download the “Whole City” app on Android
Download the “whole city” app on your iPhone