Haredi community upset at public transportation rate reforms

I just wrote about the reforms in the rates of public transportation a few hours ago. It sounded good. It sounded like this would really promote the use of public transportation by significantly lowering the prices for most people. 

It turns out not everyone is happy about this. I was silly to not realize that the Haredi community would be upset about it.

According to Kikar, even though the reform will still help many Haredim, specifically the elderly and the young, along with with the disabled, along with Haredim living in the major cities (such as Haredimin Jerusalem, in Bnei Braq, in Bet Shemesh and in other central towns with significant Haredi communities, but some Haredim might end up paying more for public transportation under the reforms so they are upset. The Haredi communities who live in more distant towns, in the periphery perhaps, in towns like Kiryat Sefer, Emanuel, Rechasim and others will seemingly find the average resident paying more on their travels to other cities. internally they will pay less, and of course the elderly and youth and disabled will also pay less, but the average adult will possibly pay more.

They say that until now the prices of public transportation for Haredi towns was cheaper, subsidized and calculated using a combination of 90 different types of rates with Haredi towns being considered weak and the lowest on the socio-economic totem pole, but now they wont get those special discounted rates (except for youth, elderly, etc) but will pay base don distance just like everywhere else in the country.

it is hard to be upset when 95% or so of the country will benefit from the change. And even the remaining 5% will benefit partially (local rides will still be cheaper, as will rides to other nearby towns - only longer rides might cost more). Maybe if the price change turns out to be a significant increase, the socio-economic factor should be considered for an additional discount.

Either way, while discounting the price in general is nice, now they have to also do something about improving the service around the country. While in some places public transportation is robust and good, in others it is weak and unreliable.

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