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Babel Dan.
The Dan company is examining options to continue the service (photo: official website, Facebook at Abel Dan)
Users of the Abel Dan service in Gush Dan are outraged by the Ministry of Transportation's decision to stop the service from January, and its counterpart, Egged Tiktik in Jerusalem.
"This is a life-saving service. When there is no direct line, this is the only way I got to work in a tolerable way. Not to mention that Voda has a lot of female passengers on the service, unlike a bus with harassers," Hani said yesterday.
"Obviously there are a million disadvantages, but it is still very cheap compared to a private taxi and more pleasant than a bus," said Sharon.
"It's a shame that it's over. You should have waited and ordered in advance, but that's how you learn to schedule. The ride itself is quiet and pleasant, except for the jumps, and relatively fast. Very efficient if you want to save switching between 3 buses on the way," Gali concluded.
The Ministry of Transportation claimed in the announcement about the closure that the move was made at the request of the companies, however, an official in the ministry clarified this evening that Egged and Dan asked to increase the subsidy for the service, following the increase in fuel prices and drivers' wages, but the ministry refused to increase the investment in the project.
Already last year, fares in Babylon were raised to NIS 14.8 to NIS 19, compared to the original NIS 10 to 18.
According to the official, Babel Dan transported only in a short period about 7,000 people a day, and most of the time his 120 minibuses only transported 5,000 people a day.
In the poorer Jerusalem, where fewer passengers were found to agree to pay the relatively high price for a bus, but lower than a taxi, the number was less than 1,000 a day.
The Dan company stated that "the company is examining with the relevant parties the ways that will allow conditions for the continued operation of the service for the public transportation passengers. The Dan company has invested many resources in recent years in the initiative to establish and operate the cooperative public transportation service in Abel Dan, as part of the company's worldview to provide high-level public transportation services most in the Tel Aviv metropolis.
During the entire period of its operation, Abel Dan is in great demand and enjoys a high level of passenger satisfaction, and offers a high-quality alternative to private car passengers and other passengers who need additional solutions in public transportation."
Ron Ratner, Egged's spokesman, said that "the Tiktek service was launched as an innovative technology-based pilot for personalized collaborative transportation in the city of Jerusalem, in September 2020, to serve as an alternative means of using a private vehicle and complementary to public transportation. During the pilot period, the project faced many geographical, transportation, and technological challenges, as well as Launched during the Corona period. At the end of the first year of operation, the trial period was extended for another period. The uniqueness of Jerusalem in terms of transportation, which is characterized by good public transportation with an efficient light rail and high-frequency bus services, numerous roadblocks that harm the efficiency of the service alongside a socio-economic structure that is an obstacle to digital premium services - They led to the decision not to extend the experiment. The 'Egged Tiktak' service in Haifa will continue to operate as normal mainly due to its being efficient and stable for the residents of the city as well as due to its potential to grow and grow in the city."
Mittal Lehbi, Deputy Mayor of Tel Aviv for Transportation, said that "the Ministry of Transportation invested huge resources in the Babel trial, but the duration of the trial period was too short to create new mobility habits among the residents of the cities where it was given. I have no doubt that there is a real need for public transportation in densely populated cities which will be provided with small vehicles and flexible routes. I suggest that the Ministry of Transportation divert the tools and resources in favor of strengthening and upgrading the system of service taxis that have never received budgetary support or subsidies"
"The closure should be a wake-up call to the Ministry of Transportation"
The public transportation passenger organization "Transportation in our way" said that "on the one hand, the closure is going to hurt the regular users of the service, on the other hand it is no secret that the service, in its current operating structure, requires a heavy subsidy and the closure is not surprising. The closure should be a wake-up call to the Ministry of Transportation to do We are thinking about whether it is right to operate a service whose purpose is to respond to the last kilometer in micro-management and the current economic framework.
It is not impossible that such a format should be released to the free market, and in any case we believe that the future metropolitan authorities in Jerusalem and the Dan bloc will know how to deal better with the definition of demand and the desired framework for such a service.
We call on the Ministry of Transportation to use the data collected throughout the operation of the service to improve and identify gaps in the existing public transportation."
It is not clear what will happen to the professional fate of the approximately 300 drivers who were employed in the two parallel ventures, and what will be done with the approximately 150 minibuses they drove that were purchased with state funding.
Most of the drivers do not have a bus driver's license, and the Mercedes Sprinter minibuses, on the other hand, do not meet the requirements of the regular public transportation lines, because they do not have a flat floor, and suffer from an accessibility problem for people with limited mobility.
The Ministry of Transportation is considering designating low-demand intercity lines for them, but will not combine them with urban lines.
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In Jerusalem there were not enough passengers for premium public transport (photo: official website, -)
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