In Globes there is an expose on a discrepancy in the prices of different bus lines around the country. They have discovered that many bus lines that service the Haredi public are operating while collecting lower fares than the fares collected by similar lines that service the general public.
You can read the entire expose on Globes. Basically it presents the facts, comparing lines, and then asks a lot of questions and presents no answers.
I personally have no problem with the bus lines that service the Haredi community being cheaper - after all, the Haredi community, as a whole, is a much greater consumer of public transportation than most other communities. In general the Haredi community is poorer, meaning fewer people in the Haredi community own cars, and has more children than the general population.
With more people using the public transportation, the community can make demands to have its needs filled, as any community can, in terms of what bus lines they would like to see operating, and Egged can offer those services at cheaper rates in order to attract the larger number of customers. Losing those customers to the competition would be far more damaging to Egged than losing a different bus line that might not be quite as busy.
Egged never says that is the reason, but to me it seems to make sense. People who buy things in bulk usually pay cheaper prices. The Haredi community buys its public transportation in bulk and therefore gets cheaper prices.
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