A Recent PHOTO from Israel

[WMATAGMOAGH]

Taken at Mifgash Habikah in the Jordan Valley on November 26, 2010:



This bus is enabled with free wifi for passenger use and may also be bomb resistant.

I'll post more of my recent photos from Israel (taken in November and December), as well as photos from my trip to Brazil and Argentina from last summer, over the next couple of days.

[Tristan]

I almost shouldn't ask this but how can you tell a bomb-resistant bus from one that isn't?

[WMATAGMOAGH]

Well, I think, but am not 100% sure, that the bomb-resistant buses have yellow triangles near their unit numbers.  However, aside from that, the windows tend to be darker (and are double paned, I find it borderline impossible to see the route sign on these buses)), the headlights are in protective cages to prevent shattered glass from escaping in the event of an explosion, and the bus somehow looks different.  Here is a bus that I know is armored as a comparison:



Also, there is the semi-complete illustrated bus roster on the Egged website (I linked to the English version but isn't 100% up to date, they only seem to be updating the Hebrew one and even that one doesn't seem to be 100% complete).

The trip planner on Egged website indicates which trips are operated with armored buses as well.  For example, plan a trip from Jerusalem to Tiberias, and you'll see the 961 or 963 (which is the route the bus I photographed was on) uses armored buses, but the 962 does not, and that is because the 962 takes Highway 6 and never enters the West Bank, while the other routes do go through the West Bank.  That is the other reason it might be armored.  But I've seen unarmored buses on suburban routes in Jerusalem that supposedly have them on every trip (plan a trip for the 142 or 143 from Jerusalem to Adam and you'll see). 

Hope this is the kind of explanation you were hoping for!

[Tristan]

Yea that's what I wanted! Lol

[aznboy4305]

I think the externally framed windshield gives it away, very similar to framed windshields found on armored trucks.

[WMATAGMOAGH]

I think the externally framed windshield gives it away, very similar to framed windshields found on armored trucks.

Ray, you'd say the bus in the first post in this thread is not armored then?  I rode one bus that I was pretty sure was unarmored but once on board, it appeared to have the double paned windows (this was on a route that is only supposed to operate armored buses).