Could Segregated buses make a return in Israel, Eldan to start leasing Better Place Electric Cars in Israel in 2012, Tel Aviv's Rental Bike Service is Succeeding

Could Segregated buses make a return in Israel?

Israel has this week seen a conflict re-emerge over the issue of female segregation on buses.  The sexist policy requiring women to sit at the back of buses on certain routes in Israel was banned earlier this year.

In order to ensure that this law was enforced, campaigns have been carried out to ensure that women can choose to sit where they like on the bus.  However, the Haredi Community have hit back demanding the right to operate private bus lines where segregation would be enforced.



Eldan to start leasing Better Place Electric Cars in Israel in 2012

Better Place have signed an agreement with Eldan, Israel's largest rental car company to provide hundreds of Renault Fluence electric cars for the car rental market in Israel.  Better Place will also install the car charging operators for Eldan to widen the electric car infrastructure across Israel.



Tel Aviv's Rental Bike Service is Succeeding


Seven months after the launch of the Tel Aviv Bike Rental Scheme, over 13000 people have purchased an annual subscription, with about 5500 bikes being rented every day from the 141 rental stations across Tel Aviv.

It was announced this week that daily and weekly subscriptions would now be offered for casual users of the service.

A daily rental of a bike would be 16 Shekels and a weekly rental would cost 60 Shekels.  It will be possible to pay at the rental station by credit card.

An annual subscription is 240 Shekels for residents of Tel Aviv and 280 Shekels for non-residents.  An annual subscription can only be purchased at the Tel Aviv Muncipality or on the Tel-O-Fun website.

It is also expected that 50 further rental stations will open in the Tel Aviv suburbs.

First electric car showroom opened in Israel in Israel, Israel Railways Safety Plan agreed, and an Extra Flight to Eilat

First electric car showroom opened in Israel

Better Place the electric-car infrastructure company Better Place has unveiled its first showroom at the Gilot Junction in Israel, in preparation for the sale of electric cars to retail customers.  Three models of the 
Renault Fluence ZE will be available which are fitted with Better Place's battery and electric engine instead of a conventional fuel tank and internal combustion engine. 

The Renault Fluence Expression will cost 123,000 Shekels and the upgraded Dynamic model will cost 130,000.  The cars are able to travel 185 km between charges.

Photo by: Ofer Vaknin

Better Place has also last week signed an agreement with Israeli car leasing company Albar Ltd. to market the Renault Fluence ZE electric cars to its leasing customers in 2012.

Israel Railways Safety Plan agreed

An agreement was reached on Thursday night between Israel's Transport Ministry, Israel Railways and the Transport Workers committee to implement Transport Ministry's rail safety plan, the Jerusalem Post has  reported.   The agreement follows Israel Katz's statement in June that if the plan is not agreed by this week he would have shut down the railways in Israel, following a number of accidents this year.

The main points of the rail safety plan are:
- increased supervision and enforcement of railway operations,
- tighter hiring terms for new employees (such as requiring train drivers to undergo thorough training and tests), and;
- regular testing of rolling stock.


Extra Flight to Eilat

The Transport Minister Israel Katz has given permission to El Al to add one extra daily flight between Ben Gurion Airport and Eilat.  El Al currently operates three daily flights between Ben Gurion Airport and Eilat.
This will see the number of seats on El Al increase on its Eilat route to 580 per day, from the current 430 seats, on four daily flights.