GO GEORGE has announced refinements to their current Smart Card mobile vehicle schedule to benefit passengers who are not within easy reach of fixed top-up facilities.
The Smart Card is currently the only means of payment for trips since the adoption of a no-cash policy in June this year as one of the bus service’s Covid-19 precautions. Passengers can top up their cards with trips at any of the fixed Smart Card kiosks or businesses/individuals registered as top-up vendors, or at one of the two Smart Card vehicles that travel and park around town on a fixed weekly schedule.
According to James Robb, GO GEORGE Manager, the uneven distribution of vendors in the various areas of town has prompted the revision of the mobile vehicle schedule. “We are currently engaged in a vendor recruitment campaign to address the needs of passengers in all areas but in the meantime, we have assessed the sales figures of all mobile locations and balancing that with areas with a low vendor footprint, we have come up with a schedule that we trust will serve passengers better.”
The new schedule will be implemented on Wednesday 21 October 2020.
Robb says passengers frequently ask when and whether the service will be returning to the option of cash as an alternative to using the Smart Card. “Research results released just this week, indicate that the virus can survive for as long as 28 days on hard surfaces such as glass and metal as well as paper banknotes. It was previously thought that the survival period was much shorter. Therefore, we would much rather make plans to take the top-up service to our passengers than risking their health as well as that of our bus drivers who would have to handle the cash.”
The GO GEORGE communication champions will be distributing flyers with the new schedule from Wednesday 14 October. The flyers will also be available at all Smart Card kiosks and mobile vehicles, as well as the info kiosk at the Transport Hub. Passengers can also visit the GO GEORGE Facebook page for the mobile schedule and the latest bus-related news, the website’s Travel Cost page, write an email to info@gogeorge.org.za, or phone the Call Centre on 0800 044 044 to enquire about their closest mobile spot.
