Jerusalem Central Bus Station

The Jerusalem Central Bus Station

The Jerusalem Central Bus Station is the main bus depot in Jerusalem, Israel and one of the busiest bus stations in the country. Located on Jaffa Road near the entrance to the city, it serves Egged, Superbus and Dan intercity bus routes. City buses pick up and discharge passengers across the street on Jaffa Road and on Zalman Shazar Boulevard, which can be accessed via an underground pedestrian passageway.^[1]

History

The Central Bus Station opened in September 2001 on the site of the old Jerusalem Bus Station, built in the 1960s. The old station was a long, single-story building with an open-air bus depot behind it. Passengers embarked and disembarked at curbside on an outdoor platform. In the 1950s, the main bus station was located in the heart of downtown Jerusalem, behind the Pillar Building ("Binyan Ha'amudim") on Jaffa Road.

Jerusalem's new bus station was commissioned in order to accommodate the increasing flow of bus traffic as well as to implement security protocols for screening incoming and outgoing passengers. During construction of the new bus station, operations were moved to a large, two-level parking lot several blocks east on Jaffa Road.

Interior design

Interior of the departures terminal on the 3rd floor

The new Central Bus Station has two levels of underground parking, three main levels, and five upper floors of office space. The first main level is a shopping concourse and food court. The second main level serves as both a shopping concourse and the arrivals hall for incoming bus passengers. Since the building is constructed on the side of a hill, the first and second main levels both have a ground-level entrance/exit to Jaffa Road. Besides retail stores, the concourse includes bakery outlets, a video game parlor, and free-standing gift sellers.

The third main level serves as the departures hall, with 22 bus platforms. Passengers wait at numbered doors for the bus to pull into its slot in the indoor parking lot, then go through the door into the parking lot to board. Large digital display boards post upcoming departure times.

While most platforms accommodate more than one bus route, popular routes, such as Jerusalem-Tel Aviv, have their own designated platform and run more frequently.

Passengers and their baggage are screened by security personnel every time they enter the Central Bus Station building. That is, departing passengers must go through security clearance when they enter the building from Jaffa Road and may then board buses without additional security checks. Riders returning to Jerusalem are dropped off in the garage on the other side of the building. They may choose to exit out to the street—in which case they do not need to pass through security—or to go into the bus station building—in which case they must go through a security check. People wishing to visit only the shopping concourses must also clear security. As is the case for most commercial security checkpoints in Israel, gun owners are exempt from security searches, it being presumed that anyone who has been vetted by the government to carry a loaded firearm in public has no criminal or terrorist intentions. In addition to building security, Egged has its own team of uniformed security personnel patrolling the indoor bus parking lots.

Train stations

Jerusalem Light Rail Red Line
Legend 'Heil Ha-Avir (Air Force Street) Sayeret Duchifat Pisgat Ze'ev Center Yekuti'el Adam Beit Hanina Shuafat Es-Sahl To depot Giv'at Ha-Mivtar Ammunition Hill Shimon HaTzadik Shivtei Israel Damascus Gate City Hall Jaffa - Center Ha-Davidka Mahane Yehuda Ha-Turim Central Station Kiryat Moshe He-'Haluts Denia Square Yefeh Nof Mount Herzl

A station of the Jerusalem Light Rail system is behind the bus stops in front of the Central Bus Station building. A new Heavy rail station, Jerusalem Binyanei HaUma Railway Station, of the planned high-speed Israel Railways line from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, is being constructed in the outdoor square between the Central Bus Station on Jaffa Road and Shazar Boulevard, it will be an underground terminus, scheduled to open in 2015.^{[citation needed]}

There are future plans to extend the high-speed train line from the Central Bus Station to the Jerusalem Malha Train Station, the terminus of the current old railroad.^{[citation needed]}

Intercity Platform list

Plat №	Lines	Destination
1	142, 143, 179.	Samaria
2,3	183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 415, 416, 420.	Westly from Jerusalem
4	180, 181, 444,	Westly from Jerusalem, Eilat
5	421, 486, 487	Dead Sea Settlements
6	148, 465, 468, 477	Samaria
7	147, 160, 165, 166, 440,
8	161, 164, 167	Gush Etzion
9	170, 948, 949	Samaria, Beit shean
10	443, 446, 470,	Be'er Sheba
11	436, 437	Ashkelon
12	438, 448	Ashdod
13	403, 404, 406	Ramla, Holon
14	434, 435, 439, 447	Rehovot, Yavne
15	431, 432, 433, 456	Rishon Le Zion
16	421, 480	Tel Aviv - 2000 Terminal
17	405	Tel Aviv
18	930, 947, 950	Haifa, Netanya
19	940, 942, 944, 960	Haifa, Hadera, Herzliya
20	953, 962, 963, 964, 968	Afula, Tiberias, Kiryat Shmona, Karmiel
21	955, 961, 966	Nazareth Illit, Beit Shean, Katzrin
22	400	Bnei Barak
53	154, 155, 157, 158, 277, 402, 407, 417, 426, 492, 494, 952, 982, 996, 997, 999	Mevaseret Zion, Elad, Bnei Barak, Bit Shemesh, Netivot, Migdal HaEmek, Rechasim, Kiryat Ata
54	122, 124, 125, 126, 127, 159, 171, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 271, 371	Ma'ale Adumim, Mevaseret Zion, Givat Zeev

Buses

The following bus services access the Jerusalem Central Bus Station:

Local: 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 15, 18, 20, 21, 23, 25, 26, 27, 29, 31, 32, 34a, 39, 41, 45, 50, 60, 67, 68, 70, 74, 75.

Intercity:

122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 142, 143, 147, 148, 150, 151, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 170, 171, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 400, 402, 404, 405, 406, 407, 416, 417, 423, 430, 431, 432, 433, 434, 435, 436, 437, 438, 439, 440, 443, 444, 445, 446, 447, 448, 465, 468, 470, 477, 480, 486, 487, 930, 940, 942, 944, 947, 948, 949, 950, 952, 955, 960, 961, 962, 963, 964, 966, 968, 972, 982, 996, 997, 999.

Controversy

Shopping mall

The decision to include a shopping concourse within the bus station (and through which passengers must pass on their way to the departures level) met with vocal criticism from rabbis and leaders in the local Haredi community. Although the bus station/shopping mall design was already commonplace in other cities, the old Jerusalem bus station—as well as the temporary bus station erected during construction—only contained a small coffee shop and cigarette and magazine stands. To the Haredim, the prospect of a multi-level shopping mall would create an atmosphere of “levity” diametrically opposed to their lifestyle.

Haredi activists had already begun operating a so called "mehadrin" (religiously-conscious) bus line between Bnei Brak and Jerusalem in order to pressure Egged to open a similar line. "Mehadrin" bus lines are characterized by separate seating of men and women and no radio being played by the driver. After Haredi activists petitioned the Ministry of Transportation to allow Egged to open a departure point for buses traveling to Haredi destinations that would board outside the Central Bus Station, Egged opened a special platform (#22) in the Central Bus Station which is located far from the other platforms, where passengers boarding its Route 400 to Bnei Brak sit in relative privacy. In addition, the bus company also agreed to launch a new, "mehadrin" Route 402 between Jerusalem and Bnei Brak. This route departs from Egged's city bus terminus at Har Hotzvim in northern Jerusalem, accommodating Haredi riders who wish to avoid the Central Bus Station altogether. The Har Hotzvim terminus has since expanded to include "mehadrin" bus departures to other Haredi destinations such as Safed, Ashdod, Haifa, Arad, Kiryat Ata and more. In a ruling of January 2011, the Israeli High Court of Justice stated the unlawfulness of gender segregation and abolished the “mehadrin” public buses. However, the court rule allows the continuation of the gender segregation in public buses on a strictly voluntary basis for a one-year experimental period.^[2]

A second bone of contention was the opening of a McDonald's franchise in the food court. Most McDonald's restaurants, including the one in the Jerusalem city center, do not have kashrut certification from the rabbinate. Although this McDonald's franchise was in the process of applying for a kashrut certificate, and even completed its construction accordingly, the rabbinate conditioned its certification on McDonald's making all its other current and future outlets in the city kosher.^[3] McDonald's rejected this and announced the branch would follow kashrut demands and open without a certificate, whereupon Haredi activists threatened a mass boycott of the Central Bus Station by Haredi bus passengers if the McDonald's did open. The Natzba real-estate firm which owns the bus station responded by canceling McDonald's contract. McDonald's took it to court and won; Natzba was forced to pay it 100,000 shekels in trial expenses. McDonald's opened its franchise in the Central Bus Station, following halachic obligations, but without rabbinical supervision or approval. The Haredi boycott never materialized.^[4] In January 2010, McDonalds reopened with a kosher certificate from the Jerusalem rabbinate, after the company agreed to make changes to satisfy the rabbis. The signs are blue, instead of the traditional red, with "kosher" written in English and Hebrew in big letters. The disposable cartons, bags, wraps, and place mats, are also blue and bear no golden arches, and the staff wears special uniforms.^[5]

See also

• Tel Aviv Central Bus Station
• Egged
• List of Egged bus routes in Israel

References

1. ^ "Transportation". Ministry of Tourism - The State of Israel. http://www.goisrael.com/Tourism_Eng/Tourist+Information/Planning+your+trip/Transportation.htm. Retrieved July 19, 2011. 
2. ^ Izenberg, Dan; Mandel, Jonah (January 6, 2011). "Court scraps ‘mehadrin’ buses". Jerusalem Post. http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?ID=202456&R=R1. Retrieved July 19, 2011. 
3. ^ Prince-Gibson, Eetta (May 31, 2002). "The Burger They Love to Hate". Jerusalem Post. http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/cultural/2002/0531mcdonisreal.htm. Retrieved July 19, 2011. 
4. ^ Reinfeld, Moshe (December 17, 2001). "Non-kosher McDonald's to open in Jerusalem central bus station". Haaretz. http://www.haaretz.com/news/non-kosher-mcdonald-s-to-open-in-jerusalem-central-bus-station-1.77597. Retrieved July 19, 2011. 
5. ^ Lidman, Melanie (January 3, 2010). "Supersize this, rabbi!". Jerusalem Post. http://www.jpost.com/LocalIsrael/Article.aspx?id=165088. Retrieved July 19, 2011. 

External links

• Dan Homepage, English
• Egged Homepage, English
• Superbus Homepage, Hebrew
• Rosenthal, Morris (December, 2006). "Jerusalem Transportation - Buses and Taxis". The Serial Tourist's Guide to Jerusalem. http://www.fonerbooks.com/getting.htm. 
• Neiman, Rachel (March 21, 2011). "Nostalgia Sunday – Old Central Bus Station: Jerusalem". IsraelityBlog. http://israelity.com/2011/03/21/nostalgia-sunday-old-central-bus-station-jerusalem/. 
• A nostalgic website dedicated to HAMEKASHER bus company operated in Jerusalem 1931-1967

Coordinates: 31°47′20″N 35°12′11″E / 31.789°N 35.203°E / 31.789; 35.203