The leading Israeli Bus company, Egged, intends to seek a strategic partnership with Israel Railways, The Jerusalem Post reported.
Egged spokesman Ron Ratner was quoted by the Israeli paper as saying that the bus cooperative sees itself both as a potential investor and service operator in government-owned Israel Railways.
"Egged must be the backbone of any plan to establish a modern transportation system fit for the 21st century. Integrating the train system with an enormous, experienced company like Egged can only benefit the customers," Ratner said.
However, Railway spokesman Avner Ovadia told the daily that "as far as investment in Israel Railways goes, there are no plans to privatize the company right now.”
Recently, the government decided to privatize 130 Egged routes, 5.5 percent of the cooperative's 1,400 lines, in order to break Egged's monopoly on intracity, intercity, and regional routes, the paper added.
Egged puts into service 1400 buses, according to the company’s web site - Albawaba.com
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