Jerusalem Egged Buses Modernizing, Part 1

For the past few weeks, there have been announcements and warnings about major changes on Egged's Jerusalem buses.

To speed up travel, bus drivers will no longer be "clerks" selling tickets and making change. They aren't going the way of the American "exact change only." We are supposed to use these little machines to load our RavKav cards with the tickets we need.

This is fine if the bus stop has one of the machines, like the one here, and you have a charge/credit card and time. Some machines will take cash, and there are special RavKav centers in some of the malls around town. Passengers on the Jerusalem Lightrail have gotten used to the fact that we can't buy a ticket on the train, but the trains are more frequent than than many buslines. It can be very annoying to miss a bus that only comes every twenty minutes, because you were loading your card.

Frequent travelers who get a monthly pass will just have to deal with it once a month. Many other regular users of the trains and buses keep a number of trips on their card, so they won't be caught empty. You can check the content on those machines. For people like me, who usually begin our bus travels to Jerusalem in Egged Taavura, it's less problematic, since our bus drivers can load the RavKav cards with the various options. There are no ticket machines in our area.

The only people who will really find this problematic are tourists and others who don't have RavKav cards*, but I think they can be purchased from the machines and other places.

If I've gotten anything incorrect here, please let me know, thanks.

*There are two basic types of RavKav cards. One is the personal one, with a picture, registered to a single person. It automatically charges discount rates for the Senior Citizens and those officially recognized as handicapped by government authorities. The second is the "anonymous" card which can be used by anyone. It gives the 90 minute transfer but no senior/handicapped discount, nor can you do the special "all day" ticket.

"Card Game," The Perils of Public Transportation

It was no game of Solitaire, certainly not Free Cell or my favorite computer card game Spider Solitaire. We're not taking about those sorts of cards. The card that had me running all over the Jerusalem Central Bus Station.

The RavKav looks like such a cheery fun card in this picture. But today, it caused me much stress and aggravation. Early in the day it was fine. When I took the train and buses it worked, but I knew that there were few rides left within Jerusalem and none between Jerusalem (or Sha'ar Binyamin)-Shiloh. So I needed to fill it. I like to fill the Jerusalem trips in the City-Pass office in Binyan Clal and the Shiloh trips in the bus station. (That's a subject for another post.)

from a different day, but
there are always lines

My friend convinced me to try the machines by the train and promised to help. I had a bad experience trying to pay that way once, which is why I don't use them. We succeeded in putting 20 trips into the card. After that I took my nephew to lunch, introduced him to kubbehs- a north-African delicacy, did some shopping in Machane Yehuda and then walked to the bus station.

At the bus station I purposely chose a clerk who didn't look familiar because I've had too many bad experiences with some nasty ones. I told her what I wanted, paid and then... a red light kept going on when she tried to put the "trips" into the card, instead of the green light.

"Sorry, but something is wrong with your card."
"How could that be. I just put in 20 rides for inside Jerusalem."
"Yes, but now I can't work it. You need to go to the "Superbus" office near #1. Don't worry, he'll take care of it, and then you don't have to wait on line."

So I went to that office, opened the door and saw some guy behind a desk eating.

"Lady, I'm on a break. Come back at 2pm."  

It was then  1:30.

"But I'll miss my bus."
"So, what? It's my break. Can't you see?"
"You can go to hell," I replied. That's not what I'd normally say, but I always put down my fork/food when a customer needs me at work.

Then I ran back to the clerk, pushed my way to the front and told her that he was eating and wouldn't see me. She quickly made a phone call.

"Go to Reuven by #22. He's expecting you and will help."

Well, I pushed my way and the guy guarding the door listened, called to Reuven who said I should go to a different clerk. She tested my card and said it was fine. When I explained the problem, she said to go to Eyal at #17.  So I went there, and they said that he had gone home. Yes, I went back to the clerk. She couldn't understand why Reuven didn't help me. Luckily someone who seemed to be the supervisor was there. He heard the story and then took me back to Reuven who made me smile into the camera for a new card.

Then I took the new card back to the clerk who transferred the Shiloh-Jerusalem rides I had just bought to it, but she couldn't transfer the internal Jerusalem rides. Hopefully, that card will still work in Jerusalem, if not I have to go to the City-Pass office.

By 2pm I was waiting for the bus home, which came a couple of minutes later. But the story isn't over. I put the card on the bus's "card reader," and red-light went on. I almost had a nervous breakdown. There was no time to run back to the clerk. The driver told me to wait, when he heard that I had just loaded it. I took a front seat and waited. After we started the trip home to Shiloh, we tried the card again, and it did work, B"H.

Bus Foul-Up, It Can Happen to Anyone

I ended up taking the wrong bus #31 from Malcha yesterday.  It didn't stop at Golumb/Pat.  It didn't stop until we were at the Government Office Complex aka Kiryat Memshala. I tried to catch a #14 from there to the Katamonim, but missed it by less than a minute. So I went to the stop for the #31 in the other direction and saw I could catch a #6 to Pat/Golumb.  The bus took ages to arrive, but once it did I got to the junction pretty quickly and made my connection, but when I got to Matan it was too late to walk into the class.

Now I've learned my lesson, two lessons.

• One is a reminder to always ask the driver. Bus routes change, and memories are faulty.
• Everyone makes stupid mistakes. That includes me.

Considering that I got to Jerusalem safely, neither accidents nor terror attacks, and any of those really bad things could have made me late. I really enjoyed how half the bus joined in trying to suggest solutions to my travel snafu. 

I was lucky to benefit from a lull in the rain after classes to walk all the way to the center of Jerusalem.  I was even able to have my lunch in Liberty Bell Park.

On the whole it was a great day, and I'll just have to listen to a recording of the missed lesson.