Line 1 rides again

Bus services resume in Mea She'arim; move comes after 1.5 years of closure due to ultra-Orthodox attacks.

Religious man riding a bus 311 (photo credit: Marc Israel Salem)
Religious man riding a bus 311
(photo credit: Marc Israel Salem)
Egged’s Line 1, which runs from the Central Bus Station to the Western Wall, has returned to the streets of Mea She’arim more than a year and a half after the bus cooperative stopped servicing most of the Jerusalem ultra-Orthodox neighborhood due to violence against the buses. Police accompanied the line on test runs at the beginning of last week, and service resumed on Thursday. “Police details are accompanying the buses so that they are able to immediately respond to any violence,” said Jerusalem Police deputy spokeswoman Shlomit Bajshi.

Bajshi added that there were no violent incidents since the buses resumed running. In the upcoming weeks, Egged will also resume service to parts of the neighborhood with Line 2. Buses continued to run along Strauss Street, the main road in Mea She’arim, but did not enter the neighborhood’s smaller streets in the neighborhood. Members of an extremist ultra-Orthodox sect called the Sikrikim attacked the buses 18 months ago because Egged refused to create ‘mehadrin’ lines to separate men and women. The High Court of Justice has repeatedly deemed that ‘mehadrin’ lines are illegal.