reform that will significantly reduce public transportation prices and take effect this summer

Transport Minister Merav Michaeli and Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced at noon (Sunday) a reform that will significantly reduce public transportation prices and take effect this summer. At a press conference, Michaeli accused that "the Ministry of Transportation has neglected public transportation for years - and traffic jams have accumulated."
After the reform, a national free-monthly ticket will cost only NIS 225. In the Negev, the Galilee and all localities outside the metropolitan areas of Jerusalem, Gush Dan and Haifa, there will be a free regional ticket for only NIS 99, for all trips within a radius of 40 kilometers. As part of the change, prices will be subsidized by 70%, and the plan is to increase the subsidy even further in the coming years.
The reform also regulates free travel for those aged 75 and over. Also, children and teenagers up to the age of 18 and adults aged 60 and over will receive a 50% discount. Lieberman noted that he hopes that by the end of the year all retirees (aged 67 and over) will not have to pay at all for the use of public transport.
The "Equal Way" reform will reduce more than 80 different public transportation fares that currently exist to a limited number of uniform fares - four for buses and five for trains. As part of the new model, it will be possible to buy a ticket for a single trip, a free daily subscription or a free monthly subscription at a uniform rate according to travel distance and geographical location. A city ticket will cost NIS 5.50 and will allow a 90-minute ride with unlimited crossings up to a distance of up to 15 km - even between different localities adjacent to each other.
Israel Railways will set five distance-based fares for a single trip and three free-monthly subscriptions combined with the new "free national" card. The Ministry of Transport has promised that for the first time payment in credit and payment applications will be possible, without price differences between different means of payment as has been the case so far.
At the press conference held at the Yitzhak Navon train station in Jerusalem, the Minister of Transportation presented serious accusations against her office under the previous ministers. "We came to an office that neglected public transportation, a deep, long-standing neglect, so the traffic jams lengthened. I said from the first moment we would move to promote public transportation because it would get us out of traffic. It would also reduce the amount of accidents. Improving public transportation and bringing people to use With the climate crisis and the reduction of pollution, "said Michaeli.
At the beginning of the press conference, Michaeli defined the new pricing as "a fair, equal, fair, cost-effective model that leads to the correction of historical distortions." She explained that the reform "is intended to make many more citizens and citizens travel by public transport". She said, "It will make it easier for all of us to be lucrative and much more worthwhile to get from point to point in life, not just on the map."
Finance Minister Lieberman said: "If I want to summarize the essence of the reform - first of all justice and fairness. This is the first time that everyone knows how a price is set, and why it is set, and there is one clear criterion - distance, mileage. No other consideration."
On this subject, Michaeli said: "If you arrived here by public transport, like me and my staff, you would find that each of you paid a completely different amount. Even if you traveled the same distance, even from the same city, you may have paid a completely different fare for the same trip. Why? A distortion of years upon years built in the Ministry of Transportation, patch upon patch of prices and tariffs that are the result of years of pressure and political combinations. The distortion causes a passenger in Acre to pay twice as much as a passenger in Tiberias. Why? "From Beit Shemesh. Inequality in all its glory. This is not about discounts. Today we are putting an end to the combine."