Israel's Public Transport Validations Reach 781 Million in 2025 with Mixed Trends Across Modes
Translated & summarized from Behadrei Haredim by baba
Israel's public transport ticket validations reached nearly 781 million in 2025, with bus usage showing slight growth but below population increase. Urban bus routes dominate ridership, while Jerusalem leads in bus validations. Light rail systems show mixed trends, with declines in Jerusalem and Haifa but growth in Tel Aviv.
The story in 6 lines · by baba
- Public bus ticket validations in Israel rose 1.4% to 780.9 million in 2025, below population growth.
- Urban bus routes accounted for 82.4% of bus validations, with Jerusalem having the highest usage.
- Peak bus travel times were 7-8 AM and 1-2 PM, with Wednesday the busiest weekday.
- Jerusalem light rail validations fell 23.7% due to a 14-week shutdown for line connection works.
- Tel Aviv light rail validations increased sharply by 21%, while Haifa’s cable car rose 26.9%.
- Haifa’s Carmelit subway saw a 7.1% decline in ticket validations in 2025.
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics released data on public transport ticket validations from 2021 to 2025, revealing a slight increase but overall stagnation in usage across most public transport lines. In 2025, bus ticket validations totaled approximately 780.9 million, marking a modest 1.4% rise from 769.8 million in 2024. This growth is below the population growth rate and continues a multi-year upward trend from 586.2 million in 2021.
Most bus rides (82.4%) occurred on urban routes, accounting for 643.4 million validations, while intercity and regional routes comprised 15.4% (120.6 million) and 1.7% (13.2 million) respectively. Wednesday saw the highest share of bus validations at 18.5%, with Monday the lowest at 17.8%. Peak hours were between 7:00-7:59 AM with 58.7 million validations and 1:00-1:59 PM with 61.2 million.
Passenger profiles showed 26% of validations were anonymous, 25.5% by adults aged 18-64, 23.2% by youth and children, 14.1% by seniors (including 76.7 million on the Gold Rav-Kav card), and 6.5% by students. Jerusalem recorded the highest number of bus validations at 171.4 million, followed by Tel Aviv-Yafo with 81.3 million and Haifa with 54.8 million.
Light rail and other transport modes showed mixed results. Jerusalem’s light rail validations dropped 23.7% to 29.9 million due to a 14-week shutdown for connecting the central section to the green line. Haifa’s Carmelit subway saw a 7.1% decline to about 1 million validations. Conversely, the Tel Aviv metropolitan light rail experienced a sharp 21% increase to 29.9 million validations, and Haifa’s cable car rose 26.9% to approximately 1.4 million validations.
