Just a few weeks ago Pfizer was so enamored with Israel and Netanyahu's obsessive drive for vaccines, and today they are frustrated and calling Israel a "banana republic" (because Israel never approved any of the purchase orders after the first batch so has yet to pay for most of the vaccines received)...

A few months ago I got a parking ticket in the mail. Not really a parking ticket - I am not sure what it is called but it was for violating a municipal law by parking my car in a zone limited as a municipal road, whatever that means. The ticket was from the City of Tel Aviv. The fine was for a nice amount.

After writing both here and on Interior Minister Aryeh Deri's Facebook wall about how inefficient the new appointment system is with it set up for the public to request appointments via email and to then wait for a call back, the system has been slightly altered.

I would like to think I had something to do with it, but it probably had nothing to do with me. At best I might have been one of tens of thousands of people who complained about the obvious problems....

I checked the website yesterday and discovered that instead of a list of email addresses as appeared before, the link to making an appointment now takes you to a page where you click on your city and then fill out a form to submit online requesting an appointment.

Still not perfect, as you submit the form and still have to wait for them to contact you, but it is better than the resident having to send an email on his own and not know if anybody actually sees it. At the end of the day, it is more or less pretty similar, but I think most people will be more confident with an online form than with an email that they had to get right on their own.

A couple of interesting news items about old people in the news:

• News1 reports that a 90+ year old man in Petach Tikva requested that instead of being registered at the Post Office near his house from which he would pick up packages that he should be registered at the branch in downtown. The downtown branch is close to the medical clinic he regularly visits and it would be easier for him to pick up his packages there than to have to go to the one he is currently registered in, even though it is closer to his house.
  Initially the Postal Authority refused to make the requested change, saying that their policy is to deliver packages and mail via the post office closest to the recipients house.
  
  Basically, that's the system and you are stuck with it.
  
  Eventually, somebody wised up and decided to take into consideration this fellow's advanced age and how difficult it must be for him. The request was approved and he is now able to pick up his mail and packages at the preferred branch, further away from his house.
  
  In general, the post office is a horrible place to have to go. They never have enough staff on hand to service the number of customers waiting.
  
  Big systems are not designed for the little guy, and often are not meant to accommodate personal requests. In Israel, even big systems are little enough that a little kvetching can get the system to agree to make changes.
  
• A law was proposed in Knesset yesterday, proposed by MKs Gafni and Maklev of UTJ but supported by most parties, by which, if the law should pass its readings, public parking lots will have to designate parking for elderly people, anybody over 75, the same way it designates parking for handicapped. (source: Bechadrei)

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The train from Bet Shemesh to Tel Aviv is a fairly busy line and has been considered extremely successful by Israel Railways. A while back they added Jerusalem to the line.

The line Jerusalem - Bet Shemesh - Tel Aviv is relatively slow. The section from Jerusalem to Bet Shemesh cuts through the mountains and is very circuitous, thus limiting the speed. It takes about 45 minutes to get by train from Jerusalem to Bet Shemesh.

The Bet Shemesh - Tel Aviv section is a bit better, because it is on level ground, not hilly. Only certain sections near the beginning have serious curves, but most of the way is fairly straight. The limitation, however, is that there are sections with only one track. That means that there are points where the train has to wait a few minutes (sometimes up to 10 minutes) for a passing train before it can continue. The ride from BS to tel Aviv takes, officially, 38 minutes (to the first TA station).

That means someone travelling from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv by train had to travel for a minimum of an hour and 20 minutes and likely more.

The only people who considered such a trip worthwhile, rather than taking a bus, were people who lived in Jerusalem in the neighborhoods right next to the train station. Most other people prefer the bus, which takes between 45 minutes and an hour. For those living near the train station, to get to the bus station they would have to spend 20 - 30 minutes in morning or evening city traffic, which makes the trip by train more or less equal to the trip by bus.

The Railways authorities found the Jerusalem part of the line was operating at a loss. They were getting decreasing numbers of passengers. They decided the line was not worth continuing. However, they did not want to cancel service to the capital city, so they devised a new arrangement.

On January 1 they split the line.

The line is now Bet Shemesh - Tel Aviv. The Jerusalem line is now considered a suburban connection of Bet Shemesh.

Meaning, a commuter from Jerusalem who needs to get to Tel Aviv (or vice versa) will take a train from Jerusalem to Bet Shemesh. He will switch trains in BS and get on a train to Tel Aviv.

The problem with this is the schedule. Most of the day is ok. The Jerusalem train is scheduled to arrive in Bet Shemesh about 10 minutes prior to the departure of the Tel Aviv train. However, there are certain hours during the day that, due to scheduling conflicts, the train arrives in Bet Shemesh about 20 minutes after the other train left to Tel Aviv.

Because there is currently only one train per hour between Bet Shemesh and Tel Aviv, that means the commuter during those hours will need to wait an additional 45 minutes or so for the train to Tel Aviv.

The travel time increased from 1:20 to nearly 2:30.

One week later this is all over the media. People are complaining on radio talk shows, they are calling the Railways authority, and today it is in various news sources, including Haaretz and TheMarker (Ha'Aretz's business newspaper).

This situation would have been avoidable, had the line been prepared properly prior to its installation. However, Ariel Sharon, then the man in charge of making the decision, made the decision to go ahead. In 2005 the State Comptroller criticized Sharon and the government that they had approved the upgrade of the line (to Jerusalem) without performing any economic analyses.

The train is a very comfortable ride. Much more so than buses. No company can justify operating at a loss, even a government controlled one, so the current need for changes is understandable. However, the changes implemented are simply untenable. It is ridiculous that a commuter will need two hours and thrity minutes (minimum) to get from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, in this day and age.

Though it happened because there were not enough passengers, they are now driving away (pun intended) the rest of their passengers on that line.

They need to rework the schedule to ensure that, excluding unusual delays, the trains are scheduled to arrive in Bet Shemesh with enough time to make a switch to continue the route with minimal waiting time.

Alternatively, and this is a solution that will solve the current problem as well as improve general service between Bet Shemesh and Tel Aviv, I woudl recommend adding at least one more train to the line. If there is a train between BS and Tel Aviv every half hour (instead of every hour), the waiting time will be cut down dramatically.

In addition that will help all the people in Bet Shemesh who are now limited to a once-per-hour train.

This could be added for only during the busier hours of the day, mornings and evenings. During these hours, the trains are pretty full and adding a train to the schedule would not mean a train running empty. During the quieter times of day where passengers are limited, they could keep it at one train per hour.