Cape Town -
Golden Arrow has announced a fare increase of 7.2 percent, which comes into effect on December 29, according the company's general manager, Francois Meyer, who said pensioners would not be affected.
Cosatu provincial secretary Tony Ehrenreich said it condemned the increase, given the hike in food prices.
“7.2 percent increase for transport will have a huge inflationary effect on working people, because they spend up to 20 percent of their wages on public transport,” he said.
Cosatu called on Golden Arrow, My CiTi bus operators and Metrorail to put a freeze on all public transport fare increases. Meyer said factors considered before increases were applied included the acquisition of 70 new buses worth R124m as well as a subsidy shortfall.
“To put the fare increase into perspective: the price of a trip between Khayelitsha and Cape Town will increase by just 73 cents - from R10 to R10.73 - in the case of a monthly clip card,” he said.
Ticket cash prices per trip on some routes would remain unchanged. A cash trip from Atlantis to Cape Town currently costs R35.90 and remains the same.
Trips from Blue Downs to Claremont or Rondebosch and from Cape Town to Strandfontein remain at R25. Passengers can postpone paying the increased fares until January 12, in the case of 10-ride clip cards (valid for 14 days), if they buy their clip cards on December 28.
Cape Times