Egged, Israel Railways to Work Together on Netherlands Project

Israel Railways and Egged have yet to come up with a coordinated schedule to enable commuters to seamlessly switch between trains and buses in Israel. But the two companies are hoping to do just that in the Netherlands, according to a report in TheMarker.

The two companies are working together to file a tender for the program in the southern part of the Netherlands, with trains and buses connecting in and around Rotterdam. Israel Railways would operate a suburban train line, and Egged would run bus lines that would coordinate with the train schedule to move commuters to offices or homes efficiently, with buses awaiting passengers as trains arrive, and vice-versa.

Egged already operates in the Netherlands, first winning a tender in 2010 for the operation of 33 bus lines in Amsterdam. Today, the company has 220 buses there, operated by the company’s EBS subsidiary. Egged would be the primary operator in the new tender, with Israel Railways supplying consulting services to ensure that the train schedule matches the bus schedule.

According to experts, Egged is on the verge of bankruptcy, as the company has failed numerous times to cut costs by shedding workers. With that, TheMarker said, the company continues to file tenders for new projects, in Israel and abroad. Along with the Netherlands, Egged also operates bus lines in Bulgaria and Poland — with about 1,800 buses operated by subsidiaries in those three countries. However, the company has not yet entered into a project with Israel Railways to coordinate bus and train schedules, the report added.