Pishers' Guide to Jerusalem #23 For One Shekel in the CBS

This is a continuation in my ongoing series about public toilets in Jerusalem. See #22, #21,#20, #19, #18, #17, #16,  #15a, #15,  #14, #13, #12, #11, #10, #9,  #8, #7,  #6,  #5, Saved by The First Station aka #4a, #4, #3, #2 and #1


I generally look only for the free loos, WCs Public Toilets, but sometimes there aren't any. That's the case in the Jerusalem Central Bus Station aka the CBS. The last time I was there, to meet a friend who was arriving from another city by bus, I didn't have time to check out all of the loos. I just went to the main one which is one flight down from the main entrance. You need to take an elevator by the front door and press -1. 

You'll find this revolving door gate* with a small machine that takes your shekel and lets you in. From there you'll find a hallway off of which are three types of loos, Male, Female and Handicapped. There was none of that awful urine smell which  is a sign that the cleaning has been insufficient.  I was pretty impressed. 

As you can see, the Ladies Room is nice and big with two walls of sinks and quite a few stalls. When I was there noontime there was plenty of paper.  

Apparently, Egged, the big bus company, no longer owns the bus station, which is also a small mall. The two shopping floors, which includes the Food Court, seem to be doing nicely.  

handicapped toilet

It's possible that people enter for commercial reasons, shopping and eating and not just to take a bus. Considering that the public toilets are near the main entrance, that's also a reason to go into the building. There was a time when everyone had to put their bags through the X-Ray security, but this is not all the time nowadays. There are guards who "eyeball it," simple profiling everyone who enters and only requesting further security checks, when they are suspicious of someone. 

*For those who can't get through the revolving door because of walkers, handicapped or baby carriages etc, there is someone who can open a wide enough gate.