Israel’s Transportation Minister Planning Public Transportation on Shabbos

By Arutz-7
Posted on 11/30/21 | News Source: Arutz-7

Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli (Labor) on Monday submitted to the Ministry of Justice an amendment to the traffic regulations, the purpose of which is to allow the public the opportunity to order public transportation services from private companies during Shabbat, Channel 12 News reported.

According to the report, the amendment will allow passengers to book a public vehicle that can transport eight or more passengers by prior reservation and payment by technological means, without subsidy from the state.

The service offered in the amendment is a complementary service to organized transportation at an unsupervised price, while reducing the regulation that requires those to travel only with the booking and payment of one customer.

The Ministry of Transportation stressed that the move is not meant to provide public transportation on Shabbat by the well-known companies. The Ministry stated that, since these operators will not receive a government subsidy, they will not be defined as "public transportation". In this way, the Ministry estimates, it will succeed in getting the entire government to vote in favor of the amendment.