Dan cancels nine Shabbat bus lines

B”H

Wait. Aren’t the same leftists who are complaining now about their inability to desecrate Shabbat publicly the same group who argued that the financial considerations should be paramount in making decisions about offering transportation?

Didn’t they argue that the public overwhelmingly demanded this transportation, and if something would make money, they should do it—even on Shabbat?

Now they are complaining because their free-market system isn’t working for their goals, the people don't want it, and it isn't making money?

I guess they will actually have to argue honestly next time and just admit they want to to run Shabbat buses Davka!

M
-----


Feb 27, 2008 16:54 | Updated Feb 27, 2008 16:58

By JPOST.COM STAFF
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1203847482839&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

The Dan bus company will stop operating lines on Shabbat afternoons, the company said in a statement Wednesday. The lines will be operating only from the end of the religious Shabbat, between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. according.

The decision will affect nine bus lines. The lines affected are considered main lines, including line 1 in Holon, line 9 in Tel Aviv, line 18 in Bat Yam and Tel Aviv, line 24 from Ramat Hasharon, line 35 arriving at Tel Hashomer Hospital, line 64, line 83a from Alphei Menashe to Ra'anana, line 161 from Ariel to the Jordan Valley and line 247 from Kfar Saba to Tel Aviv.

Meretz MK Ran Cohen demanded that Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz act immediately to repeal the decision. "This [decision] is a high robbery and very bad news for the users of public transportation," Cohen said.

Labor party secretary Eitan Cabel lamented the decision, saying that "poor families that have only Saturdays to visit their family members are not interested in the halachic time Shabbat comes out ... and this decision has also social ramifications."

Dan spokesperson Dan Piksman said the decision was motivated "purely by financial considerations, and has no connection to the status quo. He said polls conducted by Dan showed that the hours canceled were the ones less in demand by the public. "If results were different, we would cancel other time slots."