Back in October I posted an announcement of the planning of a new bus line from Bet Shemesh to the hospitals in Jerusalem, and from the hospitals to Bet Shemesh.

Since then no information has been released. People did not know when the new line would start, which bus company would operate it, the schedule, route or prices.

Until today. Today the announcement was made with details of the new bus line. The new line will be operated by Superbus and will be bus #630.

The Shemeshphone site has the details, which will be, but are not yet, available on the Superbus site, taken from the Ministry of Transportation site.

The new bus line will start running this coming Tuesday.

From the Shemeshphone site:

Here is the list of stops:RBS-gimel Zecharia Hanavi/Neria Hanavi;
RBS-alef Nahal Tze’elim/NahalHever;
Hakishon/Ayalon;
Nahar Hayarkon/Yeshayah Hanavi;
Nahar Hayarkon/Nahal Luz;
Nahar Hayarkon/Harav Greinman;
Road 3855 [the “backroad”/Hayarkon;
Zanoah quarry/Road 3855;
Harav Herzog/Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma;
Harav Herzog/Levi Eshkol;
Ma’apilei Egoz/Harav Herzog;
Rashi/Hazon Ish;
Rabin/Hatavor;
Rabin/Gilad;
Hagilad/Sinai;
Hafetz Haim/Ben Ish Hai;
Yosef Karo/Ben Ish Hai;
Road 3855/Rabbi Yosef Karo;
Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Centre;
Swedish Village/Szold;
Kiryat Hayovel “Monster”/Hantke;
Shaare Zedek Medical Centre;
Givat Mordechai/Bayt; Government offices
Rabin/Netanel Lorch;
Binyenei Ha’uma/Hanasi Hashishi.
The journey from the first stop in RBS-Gimel to Hadassah is scheduled to
take one hour and 18 minutes; RBS-Gimel to Shaarei Zedek one hour and 31 minutes.
Leaving from Beit Shemesh:06:40, 08:10, 09:40, 11:10, 12:40, 14:10, 15:40, 17:10, 18:40, 20:10
No buses on Fridays or Saturday evenings.
Please note: The bus will not stop at the main entrance to the Hadassah Hospital, the stop is next to the traffic circle on the road going up to Ora Junction and at Shaare Zedek it stops on the road outside.

 

way to go!

Superbus in Bet Shemesh follows agreed upon (agreed between them and local rabbonim led by Rav Kupshitz) rules to avoid chilul shabbos. The last buses on Friday afternoon run at 4pm, leaving the drivers plenty of time to conclude their routes and return home before Shabbos. The first buses on Motzei Shabbos start their routes 1 hour and 45 minutes after sunset, providing drivers enough time to leave their homes after Shabbos and to get their buses and start their routes, all without encroaching on Shabbos. Superbus also claims to use non-Jewish drivers for all the first/last buses right before and right after Shabbos - just to be sure that a Jew won't get stuck out there on Shabbos due to unexpected traffic or accidents or whatever.

Some local Bet Shemesh fellow is waging a campaign. This fellow believes that Superbus must adjust its timetables after Shabbos and base its first buses schedules on Rabbeinu Tam times rather than regular Shabbos times. This fellow believes that the current schedule does not provide enough time for the avoidance of chilul shabbos, but only basing the schedule on Rabbeinu Tam times can do that.

Superbus denies the claims of this fellow, explaining everything I wrote above about their schedule - the details of when they come and go, along with the use of non-Jewish drivers at those times, along with this all being agreed to by the rabbonim. The Superbus representative adds that this fellow is making a request that Superbus adhere to Rabbeinu Tam when most residents do not and as most passengers want to get back to their homes on Moyzei Shabbos as early as possible during the late summer Motzei Shabboses..
source: Kikar

If this fellow think she has stumbled upon a problem not realized by the rabbonim/askanim or others, and that Superbus is deceiving everyone involved - not an impossible claim - he should bring his information to the rabbonim and to Chmuel Greenberg - the city councilman in charge of public transportation, and any other relevant people and get the issue worked out. If he is just making it up because he thinks they should work according to Rabbeinu Tam times, it makes me wonder why any Tom, Dick, and Harry thinks he can set public policy based on his own desires without going through the relevant community leaders. I wonder what this says from a sociological perspective.

I don't quite understand how this works, but News1 is reporting that the Ministry of Transportation has approved Superbus to operate some bus lines on Shabbos.

This Shabbos will be the first time since Superbus began operating bus lines in 2002 that it will be operating lines on Shabbos.

Especially unusual about this is that much of Superbus's existing operations are in areas with Haredi populations.

This is unusual because we all know how the Haredi community takes to chilul shabbos, and breaking of the status quo, and reacts by boycotting even the non-chillul shabbos parts of such companies (like AM:PM and Shefa Shuk).

The affected lines are in the cities of Afula, Kiryat Tivon, Yokneam and Haifa. The lines operating on Shabbos will be in areas that did not previously have public transportation on Shabbos, and even going into areas with religious populations, so this is a big change in policy. Personally it makes me wonder why they approve these new lines but have refused to approve such lines on Shabbos in very secular areas like parts of Tel Aviv that have been working for years to get public transportation on Shabbos.

I wait to see how the Haredi community will react, and if they will boycott Superbus in other areas, such as Bet Shemesh, as a result. It is a tough boycott to create, considering how reliant the community is on public transportation, but I cannot see this passing quietly.

Wow! This is one of the latest pashkevils up in RBS B... against Superbus for the evil crime of operating a bus line (bus #17) through the neighborhood that also goes to the secular parts of the city. In the words of the pashkevil author, Superbus by doing so has opened up the gates of the lewdness of the streets into the neighborhood!

I would note that bus #14 has always operated on the route from RBS A through RBS B and into all areas of Bet Shemesh, so the presence of a bus from RBS B to the secular areas is really nothing new.

They threaten that if the bus line is not canceled, the battle will be brought back to them and the good relations from which both sides have benefited will come to an end, that Superbus will be responsible for!

The level of "bus fare avoidance" on the mehadrin lines is in the news again.

The supporters of the mehadrin bus lines every now and again publish advertisements reminding, or encouraging, riders to be sure to pay the bus fare even when they get on at the back of the bus. There are regular complaints about the high percentage of riders who use the cover of the mehadrin bus line honor system to ride without paying. At a transportation committee meeting in the Knesset two years ago the director of Superbus claimed that on mehadrin bus lines 30% do not pay. While that number seems impossibly high to me, that is what Balilius claimed at the time.

In this past week's Chadash newspaper, the issue came up again. Superbus drivers regularly catch people who did not pay. They decided to make an example out of someone they repeatedly have caught not paying when getting on the bus. They figure, they say, that they have been screaming until they are blue in the face to no avail, and if they now make an example of someone it will go a long way to ensuring riders pay.

How are they making an example of one rider?

Superbus is suing a female passenger that did not pay when she got on the bus using the back door. Superbus has installed "smart card readers" next to the back door for the "mehadrin" buses and by the honor system riders boarding in the back are meant to swipe their card. The article says they plan on suing for thousands to tens of thousands of shekels for damages.

Superbus responded, when asked, saying that they spent a lot of money installing systems to make it possible, all out of desire to respect the wishes of the community that wanted it, while trusting that the riders in the haredi community would be careful to pay. After investing a lot of money in machines that are easy to use, instead of making it easier for everyone involved, it has become a source of a breach in the system, allowing people to not pay and causing them a lot of loss of fees and has become a tremendous bother for them.

Superbus has admitted that the lawsuit being filed is in order to teach a lesson so that others will begin paying and not be prone to such suits of their own. Riding without paying is illegal and each time it is done it is subject to a fine worth thousands of shekels. Suing one person, they say, will hopefully cause others to decide to start paying for their rides.

Who would have ever thought that riding with separate seating was more important than theft? With the knowledge that this has been going on for years and all their encouragement to pay, a significant enough percentage of people (whatever the actual percentage is, it is clearly significant enough) still do not, the rabbonim and askanim should simply cancel the mehadrin lines. They should say that enabling theft is not an acceptable byproduct of sitting with gender-segregation, and if people are going to continue not paying for their rides they will make everyone get on in the front of the bus and pay the driver directly.

We don't blow shofar when Rosh Hashana falls out on Shabbos out of concern of one ignorant fellow that might carry the shofar in a place he isnt allowed to. We have many takanos in our religion to prevent people from getting anywhere near sinning inadvertently, or to prevent temptation of sin. Here we have a situation that is causing the temptation of theft - if theft is rampant on these buses, the mehadrin status should be cancelled by the rabbonim who have backed them until now.

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The new 412 Superbus express line to Tel Aviv begins running on Monday - tomorrow.

The new bus line begins in RBS, runs through the main streets of BS, and then takes highway 1, including the express lane to the Arlozorov train station including stopping at the La Guardia exit.

This is an excellent option for when the train line is temporarily not running for those who usually rely on the train service. As well, it should be considered a great alternate option for going to Tel Aviv in general, as you are no longer limited to the once an hour train schedule.

Another benefit, especially from RBS, but from BS as well, you can get on one bus from RBS and take it all the way to Tel Aviv, rather than taking a bus to the train station and then the train. The only things missing might be the minyan (will they make a minyan on the bus?), and the distribution of the free metro papers, Yisrael HaYom and Yediot Metro.

The following is the schedule, as per the schedule on the Superbus website:

The bus begins in RBS at 6:30a.m., 7:00a.m., 7:30a.m., 8:15a.m., 9:00a.m., 9:55a.m., 11:10a.m., 12:10p.m., 1:00p.m., 2:00p.m., 3:00p.m., 4:00p.m. and 5:00p.m.


It leaves from the Arlozorov station in TA towards Bet Shemesh at 10:10a.m., 11:10a.m., 12:10p.m., 1:00p.m., 2:00p.m., 3:05p.m., 4:05p.m., 4:30p.m., 5:05p.m., 5:30p.m., 6:05p.m. and 7:05p.m.

Again, the new bus route starts TOMORROW, Monday morning. Though it took a long time to finally happen, thanks to all those, specifically Shmuel Greenberg, who worked to finally make it so. It is never good to have only one option for anything, and this offers a reasonable second option (or maybe it will even make the train into a second option) for transportation to Tel Aviv.

I was reading the protocols of a Knesset Committee meeting that was discussing a proposed amendment to the public transportation law regarding giving authority to deal with people who don't pay the bus ticket.

The discussion was led by MKs Ofir Akunis and Eli Aflalo, and had many others invited to participate and share their experience and opinions. One of those invited was Eli Balilius, the Director of Superbus.

The discussion as laid out in the protocols is actually pretty interesting, surprisingly, albeit a bit long.

Before I get to my point, a humorous digression: When Eli Balilius first spoke up to share his opinion regarding the percentages of passengers who do not pay, the MKs stopped him and asked what Superbus is (I got the impression they had never heard of it). After Balilius explained they are a bus company like Egged and what region they operate in, MK Akunis stated for the record a comment directed at the Transportation Ministry, "You put public transportation back 40 years. There used to be tens of companies that all merged to 2 companies. You have taken us backwards 40 years to the 50s and 60s. I have no complaints against Superbus, chalila, but how much good did it do [allowing new companies back into the public transport market]."

I thought that was a funny little point to make during the debate. Now back to the point.

So Balilius is speaking and he tells the committee that the driver needs to be concentrating on driving and safety, and not have to be concerned about the normal people who do not pay the bus fare. Not the abnormal people. The normal people who do not pay are a parent who gets on with 2 kids and doesnt pay for either, when he has to pay for one, elderly people who don't have senior citizen cards but ask for the discount anyway, and other similar situations. the loss on the normative people who do not pay is between 5% and 10%, Balilius says.

Aflalo, surprised to hear those numbers, ask for clarification as that sounds like a lot of money.

Balilius responds, "I evaluate it at at least 5%. And that does not even include the mehadrin bus lines where the number is as high as 30% because of the people who get on in the back of the bus and never bother paying! (emphasis mine) Our objective is at the end of the day that the driver should not be responsible for collecting the bus fares. With the smart card, there is no need for the driver to be involved in the collection instead of being focused on driving and safety. But what will happen? If we tell the driver it is not his responsibility to collect the fares, 30% of the people will not pay!"

For the rest of the discussion, read the protocols of the meeting where they discuss giving the authority to fine passengers for not paying, and more...

That line struck me. On your average bus line, they see that up to 5% of bus fares are lost by people finding ways to get out of paying. On mehadrin bus lines, the numbers are as high as 30%!

To be dan l'kaf zchus, perhaps a lot of those people who get on in the back and don't pay are possibly holding monthly passes, so the bus fare is already paid for and is not being lost (the card still needs to be displayed and scanned, but no money is lost). And perhaps some people get on in ths back and are harried as they maybe have a few kids with them and just figure they will pay for their rides the next time they use the bus.

But still, 30% is an awfully high number. Especially for a community that praises itself on its exceptionally high level of morality.

I myself, a few times, witnessed people get on and not pay. I have seen the bus driver stop at a certain point and go to the back and scream at people for getting on and not paying. i will add that every time I have seen it, those people paid. meaning, they were not holding monthly passes that they then simply flashed to the driver, but they got on and actually had to pay a bus fare and did not.

Is that a chillul hashem? A mehadrin bus line has 30% of the people not paying the fare! 600% more than the average bus line!

As an aside, when Superbus first started operating in Bet Shemesh, I complained about the timing and some other problems. I must say that over time they have gotten pretty good and I have very few complaints about their service. I don't know if they are any better than Egged, but they are usually punctual and the drivers are pleasant.

A Guest Post by Moshe Burt

I started using Superbus service for my local Beit Shemesh travel in mid-January when their tender over a number of formerly Egged routes began.

It was with much trepidation that I went into their Beit Shemesh office, the day before their deadline for issuance of free "smart-cards", and was processed for a card.
Why trepidation? Consider what Nadia Matar and others have said and written about institution of technical identification databases here <http://www.sefer-torah.com/blog/2006/12/19/hi-tech-id-of-yesha-jews-at-checkpoints-preparing-yehudashomron-for-yudenrein/> and here. <http://www.sefer-torah.com/blog/2008/08/03/israeli-leftist-regime-animal-farm/> In short, "smart-cards" are another sign of Animal Farm, of Big Brother, of Israeli thought police and the state's surveillance of its citizens. But *Superbus' secrecy and deception and/or failure regarding providing customers of a full accounting, upon demand, of all blocks of rides bought, paid for and posted to their "smart-cards" shows that Big Brother, i.e. Police and Shabak surveillance of citizens is but a part of the problem.

*There were/are monetary incentives to using the "smart-card", i.e. that one possessing a Teudah Zacha'ut, for example, saves 11.50 NIS per 15 ride block by purchasing Superbus rides on their "smart-card." My understanding is that for pensioners, the saving is greater yet.

On the first full day of the Superbus takeover, I bought a block of local Beit Shemesh trips. After a period of time, I had run down the trips to where there were 3 or 4 left and went to buy another block.

American Anglo common-sense tells me that upon buying the second block of trips, the next bus receipt would show the total number of trips remaining that had bought and paid for, i.e. 19 (New block of 15 and balance of 4 trips remaining in the first block). Not!

Instead, on the next ride on Superbus, their computer terminal showed that there were but 3 rides remaining after deducting the current ride. What happened to the new block of rides which I had just purchased? I didn't know at the time that one could request a full accounting of everything on one's "smart-card."
Fortunately, when the old rides were used up, the new rides kicked in.

So then I ran down the rides on this block to 4 and then bought the next block, seemingly secure in the notion that the Superbus terminal would be consistent and again run down to old block of rides to zero before charging the new block of rides. Again, Not!

Instead, the Superbus computer terminal began running down the new block of rides instead of the old one. At that time, I raised a fuss and the driver printed me out a full accounting of the rides remaining in both the old and new blocks.

It concerned me that Superbus was not being consistent in the accounting for passenger rides. On Egged, it was very simple -- you paid your money, bought the denomination of trips and then the driver simply punched your card each time you rode. You knew, at all times, exactly how many rides you had remaining,
On Superbus, you place your "smart-card" on the spot on the terminal and the driver hands you back a receipt slip with your card. The problem is, that the terminal receipt only shows the how many trips are left on the block of rides being deducted from. Nowhere does it show how many total rides you have bought, paid for and have remaining. Nowhere on that receipt slip does it give a full accounting of what is still on your "smart-card."

Further the *drivers have begun deceiving their passengers by prentending that they don't know what the passenger is talking about when the passenger asks for a balance statement.* They continue their deception even when the rider shows them the previous balance statement document and they claim that they don't know what the statement is called in Iv'rit.

You try to ask for a cheshbon -- Not! You ask a friend who is in Israel longer than you and converses freely in Iv'rit and he tells you; Peirut (Pey, Yud, Reish, Vov, Tet) -- Not! One of the other passengers on one of the buses suggested the loshen "Duch" which I understood a long time ago to mean report. Once again -- Not! Meanwhile, one of the drivers who feigned not to know what I was talking about when I was asking for a balance statement double-charged me for the same trip.

Further, Superbus drivers deceivingly keep pointing to a Superbus office in Ramat Beit Shemesh, an office which has not existed for weeks.

Meanwhile, another individual who detected the same problems that I did spoke with *a Superbus supervisor* who checks to be sure everyone on a bus has paid. The supevisor *told him that we passengers have a right, on demand, to a balance statement of everything on our "smart-card."

*Finally, this morning (Sunday) I visited the Superbus in Beit Shemesh. A supervisor, Avi, who greeted me with a little bit too cheery Mo'edim B'Simcha, as if patronizing and condescending toward me, commenced to tell me that the drivers don't have to help passengers in any way, i.e. with a full balance statement of the contents of a passenger's "smart-card." He tells me that when there are other customers getting on the bus,* the driver has no obligation at all to provide such a statement upon a passenger's request. What that means is apparently that the driver can refuse to give you that which you have a right to.* Further, he told me that *the driver does not have to know what a card balance statement is.

*I told him that *Superbus' secretiveness and deception concerning balance statements leaves wide open the possibility of them lopping off blocks of rides from their computer* on passengers, poor passengers, mothers who travel on the bus with babies, strollers, often entering the bus piled down with groceries and just want to pay their fare and who probably lose their receipt slips most the time. If such lopping off blocks of rides on passengers, which these passengers had previously paid for but not used, were to occur, it would directly impact Superbus' bottom-line with excess, illegal, ill-gotten profits.

After heated words, I told Avi that I was unsatisfied with his answers. I told him that I believe that Superbus is hiding something by their deception of customers and that I have already informed the major RBS chessed organizations of a potential serious problem impacting poor people.
I did manage to get one piece of information out of Avi. I asked what the loshen is for the balance statement and he told me *"Meida (Mem Yud, Daled, Ayin) B'Cartis"* (pronounced Mayda). I strongly advise that passengers who have multiple blocks of rides on their "smart-card" begin requesting "Meida B'Cartis" as often as possible. And if something is not right, question it immediately. And if the driver doesn't or won't give you a satisfactory resolution to your question, do not hesitate to take it to the Superbus office in Mercaz Beit Shemesh.

My friends wife and 17 year old daughter went to a dentist in the Kiryah Haredi neighborhood in Bet Shemesh the other day. They finished and caught a #11 to return to RBS-A. The Superbus #11 route is a "mehadrin" line (As far as I know it is unofficial, because it is illegal, but it is recommended behavior for that community that benefits most from the 11, because they wish it to be so). So it is a "mehadrin" bus by custom.

As they entered through the front door and tried to pay the driver (and they were not the only women doing so), an 11 year old boy stood up and started screaming at them to get to the back of the bus.

This continued every few stops as females got on the bus. Finally after a while the bus driver told him to shut up, which didn't help.

So here is the result of being makpid on mehadrin buses - separate seating on buses. A chumra whose validity is questionable at best:
We have 11 year old boys telling 40 year old women what to do, just because they are male.

However, there is a revenge from the women against Superbus. Both my friends wife and daughter said that of the women who entered through the rear, most did not pay. Some who had an older male child with them did, as they sent their child with the money or card to the driver. Whether due to worries of, G-d forbid, entering the "men's" section, just the hassle of going up front, or an intentional response to being in the back, my friend's wife and daughter said that over 50% didn't pay. Add in the children with them and the numbers are much higher.

So not only do we have an unofficial mehadrin line where 11 year olds rule over the women, but the bus company gets to absorb the cost of 40% of their passengers riding for free.

Egged has a similar situation, but they deal with it differently - they were not going to allow 40%-50% of passengers not pay.... On the 418 line, another mehadrin line by custom, after the bus has left the charedi neighborhoods the driver sometimes pulls off to the side of the road, parks the bus, then goes to the back of the bus with his puncher and change machine and processed payment for all the women and their children in the back. On other occasions one of the men in the front volunteer to do the same, then take the driver's punch and change and go do so (why is he allowed to do this on a mehadrin bus??). Clearly this wouldn't work on a local bus - perhaps Superbus should simply run a mens-only and womens-only #11 buses for communities that want mehadrin, but in a mixed community I cannot see that working.

Regarding the 11 year old, if any of us finds ourselves on a bus with such a situation, we are obligated to stand up to it and stop it. Otherwise this is only going to get worse.

Some people are just pious idiots who would teach children to not respect elders - an aveira in the Torah - a d'oraisa- in the name of a chumra on top of a chumra.

The following ad was run by Superbus...

They are announcing the opening of an office in RBS for selling the "Smart Card" bus cards. What is unique about this is that the office is operating under "mehadrin", as defined by the kannoim BS, guidelines, with separate hours for men to buy cards, and for women to buy cards.

This seems to be the first local business to "go mehadrin" and listen to the dictates of the kannoim.

They don't even have any "mixed" hours where whole families can come. All hours are completely seperate. What if a husband uses up his card on a Monday, and can't fill it up because that day there are only womens hours, and his wife is unable to go that day? or vice-versa? Or if the kids use up their cards while the father is at work, and the mother can't fill up the card because today is only mens day?

If they had regular operating conditions, and then made some hours separate for those who wanted such an arrangement, I would be ok with that. But to only operate on separate hours?

Is that an indication of the growing strength and increasing influence of the kannoim? Bet Shemesh got rid of Egged, and brought in Superbus with all its problems (I read articles in various local papers - while all praise Superbus for increased bus lines, all heaped far more criticism on Superbus for not being able to cope with the size of Bet Shemesh and the fact that 3 weeks in and Superbus is still having a high percentage of late buses, buses that don't show up, rude drivers, etc.), and Superbus seems to now have been taken over and is being dictated to by the kannoim.

And in other, non-war related news, let's revisit the Superbus status.

I continue to hear horror stories from people about buses that never showed up or buses that show up extremely late. there are also the stories of the smart card problems causing delays or not working...

Personally I tried again to take the Superbus #12 line home from the station the other day. The bus came to the first stop just a couple of minutes late. After that it was a pretty smooth ride, and the timing was very reasonable. As long as the bus shows up, it can definitely be considered a viable option. In the morning however, the schedule leaves a lot to be desired, as it is not coordinated at all with the train schedule. To take a bus in the morning to the train station, I would have to take one that gets me to the train station 25 minutes or so before the train..

In other Superbus news, the following ad was in the haredi adbook "Afarsimon" this week.

It says the #11 bus line is running as a mehadrin line with womens' seating being in the back. What is interesting about it is that it says that "until a hole puncher is placed in the back of the bus (note: obviously so the women will not need to go to the front to get their cards punched - they can do it themselves using the honor system), there will either be an usher standing in the back to accept payment, or a child should be sent to the front to pay."

Considering the new system Superbus is using has done away with the old-fashioned bus tickets, I wonder what good a hole puncher in the back of the bus will do. They are going to punch holes in their smart cards?

The #11 line is one that goes solely through the haredi areas of Bet Shemesh. Another note about the #11 line is one that was published in the Chadash this past week. It complained that people have no idea where the stops are, people have no idea which direction is the beginning of the route and which is the end of the route, and Superbus has not been good about getting out the information. It described situations, it claimed many such incidents, where people got on the bus meaning to go to one side of the city and ended up on the other side.

What is ironic is that in the same article, it quoted Rav Kopshitz who insisted that Superbus not generally publicize any info about the #11 bus. he wants the general public to know as little about its route and schedule as possible so nobody from the general public will use it. He demanded that Superbus publish information packets for the 11 bus separately and distribute them only in the haredi areas.

So publishing the info is bad, and then because they don't, people end up going all sorts of places they had no interest in going to, and wait a lot of extra time for buses because the schedules are not readily available.

That is it for this week's Superbus status update..

Yesterday, January 5th, was meant to be a monumental day for Bet Shemesh. The face of public transportation was meant to have been forever changed.

January 5th was to be the day that Superbus took over the majority fo the Bet Shemesh bus lines from Egged, after having won the tender for the lines. Egged gave such poor service that people were ecstatic about the upcoming change.
Egged did not formulate bus lines that residents thought were useful and necessary. A bus ride in the city could take upwards of 45 minutes, depending where you got on and where you got off. There was only one internal line, and it went all over Bet Shemesh, through every neighborhood. So what would be a 10 minute ride across town, turned into a 45 minute ride. Intercity buses would come late, and sometimes not at all. Buses were overcrowded, and Egged often refused to add more buses to the routes. Egged was considered a disaster typical of a monopoly holder.

Then Superbus won the tender for [most of] the Bet Shemesh lines. They advertised ad nauseum about their taking over and adding routes and lines. They advertised ad nauseum the new, modern buses they would be using. They advertised ad nauseum the new system they wouuld be implementing for buying tickets, with a smart card. They added routes and bus lines, so depending on where you need to go, you might get there in a reasonable amount of time.

So last night I decided I would go home from the train station via Superbus. They added a new line from the train station fairly directly to RBS, not going through BS at least. The ride would take about 20 minutes or so, instead of the 45-50 it used to take with Egged.

I decided I would try it out, and see if it was a reasonable solution for my way home on a regular basis.

The #12 bus is supposed to run twice every hour from the train station to RBS. once on the :25 and once on the :55. So my train came in at 5:47 or so, and at 5:55 I should have had a bus to RBS. Great.

No #12 bus shows up. The officials at the station across the street were being mobbed by a crowd of customers trying to buy smart cards, and they were not very helpful as to where the bus was and when it might arrive to take all of us waiting at the bus stop. Their main answer was either:

• I don't know, or
• Today is the first day, so be patient.

Sorry, but on the first day you should be out there working hard to make a good impression. For the first day, I can understand being a few minutes late - but for a bus to not show up at all???

Anyway, the bus never came. I found someone I know waiting to buy a smart card and we made up that if I was still waiting for the bus by the time she was done at the station, she would give me a ride home.

Finally at 6:28 the #12 bus came. That would be either 33 minutes late for the 5:55 bus, or 3 minutes late for the 6:25 bus. Just then she came by and told me she is leaving and can give me a ride. By then I was fed up and decided I did not want to sit on a bus for another 20 minutes or so, so I took the ride.

My opinion on Superbus taking over the lines right now is hovering at they are probably worse than Egged. I will give them another chance - maybe they need a few days to get themselves in shape, and will try again later...