The GO GEORGE Smart Card will be available from 15 October 2018, and will be used on the buses from 15 November. What happens during the month in between?
New equipment on buses
From 20 October to 14 November 2018, the new Smart Card equipment will be installed on buses. During this time, some buses will still have the old ticket readers, and some the new equipment that cannot validate your paper ticket.
For this period, on the buses already fitted with the new equipment, all tickets (on-board single, off-board single and multi-journey) will be punched by the bus driver who will issue you a R0-value transfer receipt printed by the new card machine, and hand back the punched ticket too. To transfer to another bus within the one-hour period, passengers will need to show both this receipt and the punched ticket to the driver.
The transfer receipt used during transition and in future when using your Smart Card, prints the one-hour end time, as well as the time of boarding the first bus. This makes it easier for both the passenger and driver to see when the hour allowed for transfer expires.
From 15 October:
- Buy your Smart Card
- Still use your paper ticket on bus
From 15 November:
- Start using Smart Card on the bus
- No more paper tickets will be sold, but you can still use your remaining tickets on the bus
From 15 December:
- No more paper tickets will be accepted on buses
- If you don’t have a Smart Card, you can buy a trip on the bus at R12
For more information, phone the GO GEORGE Call Centre on 0800 044 044, send an email to info@gogeorge.org.za, or follow GO GEORGE on Facebook for the latest news.