Ness Ziona will join the public free transportation service on weekends

Next Friday, July 21, Ness Ziona will join the public free transportation service on Friday evenings and Saturdays "Na'im on the weekend" - thus becoming the tenth city to participate. According to data provided by the transportation enterprises on Shabbat and municipalities that operate transportation services on weekends, more than 45 thousand residents Local authorities in the central region only use transportation on Shabbat free of charge every weekend. However, the number of passengers on public transportation on Shabbat throughout the country is greater, as there are city bus lines in Haifa on Shabbat, and intercity lines, for example from Eilat to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and from Kiryat Shmona to Tel Aviv. Besides, on Saturdays there are service taxis, which operate only partially compared to the other days of the week. However, both the buses and taxis charge a fee for the trip. And so, in the field where the state ignores the needs of the secular and traditional public - those who operate are the local authorities and the private enterprises. The most extensive and largest transportation service on Shabbat is Naim on the weekend. The service, which has become a metropolitan project and crosses municipalities in Gush Dan, is operated by the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality. The frequency of its lines is usually relatively high, and on average buses in this service arrive every 20 minutes. Sheshafla joins other cities where the service operates, free of charge, including Tel Aviv, Givatayim, Hod Hasharon, Modi'in-Maccabim-Reot, Kiryat Ono, Ramat Hasharon, Shom, and Mesharet Zion - which joined in May. Currently, about 35,000 passengers ride the service every weekend "That. According to Deputy Mayor of Tel Aviv-Jaffa Mittal Lehbi, who holds the transport portfolio and initiates and leads Naim on the weekend with the backing of the municipal administration, "The mayors who are aware of the needs of the residents and are exposed to the efficiency of the service are joining to enable equal opportunities in mobility even for those who do not have a license or a car." Lehbi She adds that the initiative is implemented directly with the mayors of cities that wish to be partners in Na'ev on the weekend, and not through the opposition, "so that the project does not become a tool for internal confrontation within the authorities." According to data provided by the Ramat Gan municipality, the "Sevabus" service, which operates on Friday evenings and Saturdays, initially served less than 1,000 passengers, and today 8,000 residents ride it every weekend, free of charge. There are two lines in service, the route of which passes, among others, entertainment centers, the beach in Tel Aviv and the Sheba Hospital, and they arrive every 20-30 minutes. The municipality of Herzliya also operates two free lines to entertainment centers in the city itself and to Tel Aviv. According to the municipality, on Friday evenings about 500 residents use the shuttle service, and on Saturdays about 800 residents. To the question why Herzliya has not yet joined the Naim project on the weekend, the municipality replied that it "started operating public transportation on weekends before Naim on the weekend, and the two existing lines provide an optimal response to the needs of the residents." Until a month ago, the "Shabus" service operated in Rishon LeZion for more than two years. According to Shebus, the service was stopped for economic and political reasons, and now Deputy Mayor Maxim Babitzki operates a bus line service financed by a private company. According to Babicki, about 1,000 people use the line on the weekend. The municipality said that a year ago it operated a pilot of shuttles to the beach on Saturday, but there was no demand for it. The municipality added that there is no objection to Shabbat transportation projects operating in the city. Many authorities understand the residents' need for transportation on Shabbat: for secular and traditional residents, who do not own a car or do not have a driver's license, for teenagers, those with disabilities, residents of the third age, as well as people who are careful not to drive after drinking alcohol and want to return home safely. However, there are still authorities where the councils are mostly controlled by an ultra-Orthodox minority, even though these cities have a majority of secular and traditional public. This prevents the residents from getting public transportation on Shabbat mainly for political reasons. For example, in cities on the southern coastal plain - Ashdod and Ashkelon, and in cities in the south such as Beer Sheva and Dimona, which also have a secular and traditional population, there is no public transportation on weekends. edit as nwes story