I alerted a mod that this should be moved to the Middle East forum instead
Originally Posted by
momoflyingguy
How does it work the rav kav?
i.e. when i use my rav kav, why do i get an additional 25% loaded on?
This is just part of Rav-Kav. It was initially an incentive to use Rav-Kav instead of paper tickets. Now, paper tickets have been completed phased out and you can pay for public transportation (with the exception of the train and lighr rail - which still have paper tickets in addition to Rav-Kav + apps) pretty much only using either a Rav-Kav or an app (Moovit, Anyway by Isracard, MOT app, Hopon). But the "discount" has remained. It's a discount in the sense that to get 125 shekel of value, you only spend 100 shek. So it's a 20% discount. Then there are further discount profiles (e.g. students get 33% discount, students who purchase a semester/year-long unlimited pass within a given zone get 50% discount for all other travel, pensioners, youth, etc.).
and how does it work that i can use it on multiple providers?
It's a smart card and usable on all forms of public transportation in Israel (except the East Jerusalem Arab bus lines)
who pays who? it seems a different system than in other countries, where possibly the provider receives all the income - is this true?
You pay the money, the provider receives the money when you travel. Public transportation in Israel is significantly subsidized by the Ministry of Transportation
and sometimes there is a 90 minute window of free travel, do the different buses i use get the same money?
When traveling within an urban zone (i.e. Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, etc.) you get unlimited travel within 90 minutes of your first validation. This is true when paying with Rav-Kav, not with paper tickets. Keep in mind that only travel within an urban zone qualifies, and the train is excluded.
All of the above being said, the new apps will likely eventually replace Rav-Kav. For now, they both work. In
most cases, the apps will end up being cheaper than Rav-Kav (conceptually it is distance-based pricing). A big benefit of the apps is that they charge you retroactively based on the lowest price (meaning if you traveled enough to have made it worthwhile to buy a monthly pass, then at the end of the month it will only charge you the monthly price, not each individual price; if you didn't, it will charge the individual trips - so you no longer need to guess if you'll need a daily/weekly/monthly pass)