“Actually, we are supposed to implement annual increases, like other municipal service tariffs,” said James Robb, GO GEORGE Manager.
“However, we were holding back two scheduled increases, hoping to first allow the entire community to start out the bus service at the same price. With the repeated postponement of the Phase 4 roll-out, it has now unfortunately become impossible to keep postponing the tariff increase too. Our budget has now already had to absorb the impact of the loss of income of two postponed increases.”
Cheaper to buy off bus
Single bus tickets bought off bus at vendors, will cost R9.00, which is only 50c more than the current price of R8.50. Passengers are encouraged to buy their tickets before boarding a bus, to save boarding time and enable the system to stay on schedule. To reinforce this practice, a R1.00 additional increase was approved for tickets bought on the bus, those tickets then costing R10.00.
The increase for the multi-journey ticket which is valid for 10 trips, is R10, in other words, an increase of R1 per trip, meaning that the ticket will cost R85 instead of the current R75.
To make it easier for passengers to buy tickets before boarding the bus, the number of ticket vendors in the communities have been more than doubled, now standing at 29. Mobile vendors are also offering tickets to passengers at busy stops during peak time, joining the growing number of businesses that already serve as selling points.
Grace period
To give passengers time to use their old tickets, and especially multi-journey tickets, a grace period of one calendar month will be allowed for the use of the current tickets. No old tickets will be accepted after 28 February 2017.
The new tickets will be on sale from 1 February. The on-bus single ticket (R10) will be grey, distinguishing it from the green single ticket (R9) sold off bus. The multi-journey ticket is blue. If passengers still want to buy tickets on the bus, they are requested to have the exact amount of cash (R10) ready to avoid delays.
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