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Egged Bus Cooperative
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Egged Bus Cooperative (Hebrew: אגד) is the largest bus company in Israel, and the second largest in the world (after London Buses) [1] . A cooperative owned by its members, Egged employs 6,117 workers and has 3,303 buses for more than 1,038 service routes and 3,984 alternative routes all over Israel. Egged makes 44,957 trips every day, transporting about a million passengers over 810, 519 km of roads. Egged's bus routes reach most settlements, kibbutzim, moshavim and cities in Israel. Egged also runs local bus networks in most Israeli cities and towns.
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Egged was created in 1933 through a merger of four smaller bus cooperatives. In 1951, Egged merged with the northern Shahar bus company and the southern Drom Yehuda bus company, creating a cross-country public transportation network. After the Six Day War, Egged merged with the Hamekasher bus company of Jerusalem. The name Egged (lit. Union) was given to the cooperative by the Israeli poet Chaim Nachman Bialik, in reference to the original merger.
Despite some privatization attempts made by Benjamin Netanyahu, Egged is still a monopoly, subsided by the state and controlling most of the inter-city bus lines in Israel. High costs and low quality service are the alleged result. Netanyahu's attempts at privatization were cut short by a bus strike that brought the country to a halt, and Egged's workers and directors don't hesitate to declare that any further attempts to undermine the company's monopoly will be met with similar measures.
During the wars of 1956, 1967 and 1973, Egged buses and drivers helped to reinforce the logistics system of the IDF and drove soldiers and food to the battlefields.
Egged's bus fleet include a wide variety of bus models of Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and MAN, including bulletproof versions used mostly for travel in the West Bank/Judea and Samaria.
Other notable Israeli bus companies include Dan Bus Company.
Some lines, mainly running in and/or between major Haredi Jewish population centers, are classified as 'Mehadrin' buses. These buses, while identical to others, can be used by anyone whether Haredi or not, but travelers should note that they are segregated by sex (with the exception of husband and wife, or parents with children), and women may be expected to sit in the back of the bus, while men sit in front; couples usually sit in the middle section. For women, a modest style of dress is recommended (meaning, no miniskirts or bare shoulders). Mehadrin routes were implemented by popular demand at the behest of Haredi Jewish residents.
Drivers are required by Egged guidelines to enforce Mehadrin guidelines. However, the Mehadrin bus guidelines are not law, and Haredi passengers might request from other passengers to observe these guidelines. Mehadrin routes were heavily criticized after Israeli-American woman Miriam Shear was assaulted on November 24, 2006, by a group of Haredi men while riding an Egged line for refusing to give up her seat to a male passenger and move to the back of the bus. Secular Israeli and Jewish critics have likened the Mehadrin lines to former racial segregation in the United States, with Shear being compared to African American icon Rosa Parks[1].
