The George Municipality has announced the annual increase in the GO GEORGE bus fares from 1 July 2023. The increase forms part of the annual municipal tariff adjustments.
Bundles still the best buy
Smart Card trips bought in bundles of 10 or more will increase by only 90c per trip to R11.90 and bundles of less than 10 trips will cost R13.20 per trip (95c more than before). The price of single trips increases with R1 to R16 to encourage passengers to rather load the multiple, cheaper trips on their Smart Cards and to avoid long queues to top up every few days.
The bundles of 10 trips and more remain the best buy. Purchasing this bundle saves a passenger who travels to work or school and back home five days per week, R180 per month in travel expense compared to the same number of single trips.
Free trips for first-time card buyers
The cost of the Smart Card is R27 for first-time buyers, including two free, preloaded trips when they present a valid form of identification. New and replacement cards cost R35. There is no profit for the Municipality in the sales of Smart Cards; on the contrary, the cards are sold at much less than their cost to the Municipality.
Trips loaded on a Smart Card never expire. This means that trips bought before the tariff increase stay valid. Passengers are welcome to buy more trips than usual before the increase to save money but are cautioned to keep their cards safe – if lost or stolen, the trips cannot be transferred to a new card.
Utilise existing Smart Cards
Passengers are encouraged to utilise their existing cards to top up and not to unnecessarily purchase new cards if they do not need it. Similar to bank cards, smart cards expire five years after issuing by the bank. Hence, it makes even more sense to rather use existing cards you may have in reserve rather than purchase a new one if it is not really necessary.
Work around loadshedding
To curb the impact of loadshedding, passengers are advised to top up their Smart Cards when they are near operational top-up points, before they run out of trips. Top-up vendors often experience battery problems with their card devices during loadshedding.
For more information, please call the GO GEORGE Call Centre at 0800 044 044, or send an email to info@gogeorge.org.za.
