Fares & tickets

GO GEORGE has a distance-based fare system, with the majority of routes in and around the main George urban area falling within the 0-15 km range. The current ticket prices apply to this distance.

PLEASE TAKE NOTE: The GO GEORGE Smart Card is replacing the paper ticket system of the bus service from 15 November 2018.

To give all passengers enough time to get to a card distribution point, Smart Cards will be issued from 15 October. For visitors to the city, as well as passengers who don’t usually make use of the bus service, a single ticket can still be bought on the bus with cash, whereupon a printed receipt serving as a ticket, is issued. However, these tickets cost more than the prepaid trips loaded onto the GO GEORGE Smart Card and will require the buyer to keep the right amount of cash handy. We encourage all passengers to purchase their Smart Cards as soon as they become available.

Single-journey tickets

Single tickets are sold on buses (R12, cash only) and at vendors (R10) as listed below. On the bus, the driver will issue a ticket and validate it by having the date and time stamped on the ticket.

This will allow passengers to transfer, getting off one bus and on to another to complete a journey in one direction without paying more.

Just show the ticket to the driver on the next bus who will check that the transfer has been made within 1 hour of the ticket being validated.

Passengers are requested to have the right amount of cash (R12) ready when they buy tickets on the bus.

Multi-journey tickets

The cheaper and convenient GO GEORGE multi-journey ticket (MJT) is available to the public only at registered vendors all over town. This ticket currently costs R90 and is valid for 10 bus rides, a saving of R1 or R3 per trip, compared to the single-journey ticket (bought either off or on the bus). This brings the added convenience of buying once for a period of time, not having to carry cash, and speeding up the boarding process on the bus.

The list of vendors below is constantly updated as more vendors join the team.

Smart Cards

A Smart Card that can be loaded with trips will be introduced on 15 November 2018. Fares will be deducted from your balance by holding the card against a validator when you get on and off the buses. This is in line with other automatic fare systems like Gautrain and MyCiTi in Cape Town. Cashless systems make the bus service faster, safer and more convenient.

This is how the paper tickets work:

When the passenger boards the bus for the first time on a trip, they must get their ticket validated by the driver. It will be clipped and a date and time will be stamped on it. From the time of validation, the ticket is valid for one hour, allowing the passenger to transfer between buses during a one-direction trip without paying again. After completion of the trip, they must not throw the ticket away like a single ticket, but keep it and use the rest of the 10 trips within 30 days of first validation. It is important to keep the ticket in a safe place and not let it fold or get wet, otherwise the ticket validator on the bus might not be able to ‘read’ (or validate) the ticket again next time.

Ticket Vendors