Jerusalem Central Bus Station

The Jerusalem Central Bus Station (Hebrew: התחנה המרכזית של ירושלים, HaTahanah HaMerkazit Shel Yerushalayim) is the main bus depot in Jerusalem, Israel and one of the busiest bus stations in the country. Located on Jaffa Road near the entrance to the city, it serves Egged, Superbus and Dan intercity bus routes. City buses and light rail trains pick up and discharge passengers across the street on Jaffa Road and on Zalman Shazar Boulevard, which can be accessed via an underground pedestrian passageway. The entrance to Israel Railways' underground Navon Railway Station is located across the light rail stop in front of the station.

History

Starting in 1932, the main bus station was located in the heart of downtown Jerusalem, on Jaffa Road just east of King George street. The Pillar Building ("Binyan Ha'amudim") currently stands on this site.

In the 1960s a replacement station, designed by Ossip Klarwein, was built further west, at the site of the current station. The old station was a long, single-story building with an open-air bus depot behind it. Passengers embarked and disembarked at curbside on an outdoor platform.

The current Central Bus Station opened in September 2001 on the site of ist predecessor. It was commissioned in order to accommodate the increasing flow of bus traffic as well as to implement security protocols for screening incoming and outgoing passengers. During construction of the new bus station, operations were moved to a temporary station, several blocks east on Jaffa Road, adjacent to the later-to-be-built HaTurim light rail stop.

Interior design

The new Central Bus Station has two levels of underground parking, three main levels, and five upper floors of office space. The first main level is a shopping concourse and food court. The second main level serves as both a shopping concourse and the arrivals hall for incoming intercity bus passengers. Since the building is constructed on the side of a hill, the first and second main levels both have a ground-level entrance/exit to Jaffa Road. Besides retail stores, the concourse includes bakery outlets, a video game parlor, and free-standing gift sellers.

The third main level serves as the departures hall, with 22 bus platforms. Passengers wait at numbered doors for the bus to pull into ist slot in the indoor parking lot, then go through the door into the indoor garage to board. Large digital display boards post upcoming departure times.

While most platforms accommodate more than one bus route, popular routes, such as Jerusalem-Tel Aviv, have their own designated platform and run more frequently.

Passengers and their baggage are screened by security personnel every time they enter the Central Bus Station building. That is, departing passengers must go through security clearance when they enter the building from Jaffa Road and may then board buses without additional security checks. Passengers arriving in Jerusalem are dropped off in the garage on the other side of the building. They may choose to exit out to the street—in which case they do not need to pass through security—or to go into the bus station building—in which case they must go through a security check. People wishing to visit only the shopping concourses must also clear security. As is the case for most commercial security checkpoints in Israel, gun owners are exempt from security searches, it being presumed that anyone who has been vetted by the government to carry a loaded firearm in public has no criminal or terrorist intentions. In addition to building security, Egged has ist own team of uniformed security personnel patrolling the indoor bus parking lots.

Indoor air pollution

In October 2013 the Environmental Protection Ministry of Israel officially declared the indoor garage where passengers board the buses to be "an excessively polluted space and an endangerment to public health". The levels of nitrogen oxide and respirable particulates generated by exhaust were said to be in violation of Israel's Clean Air Law. In 2012 the bus station received a fine of NIS 708,224 for air pollution, which is still being discussed in court, and in September 2011 the Environmental Protection Ministry ordered the management to "completely separate the bus platform and the building's interior due to high pollution levels".

Text imported from Wikipedia article "Jerusalem central bus station" and modified on 21 February 2022 according to the CC-BY-SA 3.0 license.