'Congestion charge' needed to boost public transport
Haaretz
June 12, 2007
By Avi Bar-Eli
The director general of the Transportation Ministry, Gideon Siterman, has said big cities may have to introduce a congestion charge to discourage drivers from using their own vehicles.
"Drastic steps must be taken to encourage the use of public transportation, whether by diverting budgets to public transportation infrastructure, or by taking steps that will force the public to use public transportation" said Siterman at a conference of privately owned companies in the public transport business, which was held on Sunday at the Dead Sea.
"We have already redirected NIS 2 billion from the budget allocated to paving roads, toward public transportation infrastructure, and there is no choice but to implement a congestion charge to discourage entrance of automobiles into cities and encourage the use of public transportation" added Siterman. "The future is in public transportation, simply because we have no choice."
Commenting on the continued privatization in the sector, the comptroller of the Transportation Ministry, Eran Heimer, said that "if it were only up to us, we would do so [privatize] as quickly as possible." Heimer added that the rate of privatizations should be doubled, and reach 50 percent of the bus lines.