Israel recorded more than 780 million validated bus rides in 2025, marking only a modest increase from the previous year, according to new data released Tuesday by the Central Bureau of Statistics.

The number of validations on regular bus routes reached 780.9 million in 2025, up approximately 1.4% from 769.8 million in 2024. The increase was lower than Israel’s population growth rate, although ridership has risen significantly from the 586.2 million validations recorded in 2021.

Urban routes accounted for 82.4% of all bus validations, totaling 643.4 million. Intercity routes accounted for 120.6 million, or 15.4%, while regional routes recorded 13.2 million validations.

Wednesday was the busiest day of the week for bus travel, accounting for 18.5% of validations. Monday recorded the lowest weekday share at 17.8%.

Peak travel periods were between 7 a.m. and 7:59 a.m., when 58.7 million validations were recorded over the year, and between 1 p.m. and 1:59 p.m., with 61.2 million.

Jerusalem led Israel’s major cities by a wide margin, recording 171.4 million bus validations. Tel Aviv-Yafo followed with 81.3 million, while Haifa recorded 54.8 million.

Among passenger categories, anonymous profiles accounted for 26% of validations, adults ages 18 to 64 made up 25.5%, and children and teenagers accounted for 23.2%. Senior citizens represented 14.1%, while students accounted for 6.5%.

Ridership trends on Israel’s light rail systems were mixed. Jerusalem’s light rail recorded 29.9 million validations, a sharp 23.7% decline from 2024 following a 14-week shutdown of its central section for work connecting it to the Green Line.

Meanwhile, the Tel Aviv metropolitan area’s light rail also recorded 29.9 million validations, but that represented a 21% jump from the 24.7 million recorded in 2024.

Haifa’s Carmelit recorded approximately one million validations, down 7.1%, while the city’s cable car system recorded roughly 1.4 million validations, an increase of 26.9%.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)