Only a third of bus rides were with a monthly pass.
The day after the cabinet approved a NIS 600 million allocation to encourage the use of public transport by the end of 2012, the Ministry of Transport reported that bus ridership rose 24%, from 480 million passengers in 2004 to 594 million in 2009. The ministry is still processing data for 2010.
An analysis of bus travel in 2009 found that Egged Israel Transport Cooperative Society Ltd. still carried the largest number of passengers - 46.6% of the total - a decade after the decision to privatize some routes. Dan Public Transport Co. Ltd. carried 23.4% of all passengers, and the smaller bus operators carried 30% altogether, close to their proportion of bus lines (28%).
Egged increased its passenger traffic by 5%, while there was no change at Dan. 34% of passengers use the bus companies' monthly passes, an important figure in light of the cabinet decision yesterday to cut fares for those passes as of April. 26% of passengers paid the regular fare.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 21, 2011
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2011