Golden Arrow bus fares to rise after fuel hike

Golden Arrow bus fares are set to rise by 2.7% from Monday September 18, according to Derick Meyer, the company’s general manager.

This follows a hike in the fuel price on Wednesday September 6. Petrol is up by R1.71 a litre, and diesel by R2.76 to R2.84.

“Unfortunately, rising operational input costs, such as fuel, and a legacy of implementing fare increases that are much lower than industry inflation has placed significant strain on the company’s ability to provide the level of services that our passengers expect and deserve,” Mr Meyer said in a statement.

“In addition to this, contractual rates paid by the (provincial) government have also decreased in real terms. As such we will be implementing an average fare increase of 2.7%. The pricing of pensioner’s products will not increase.”

South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) chairman Mandla Hermanus said minibus taxi fares would hold for now.

“We have not taken a decision on whether our associations will review their fares. We normally review our prices once a year, sometimes once every second year, but it varies from association to association. So, at the moment, our prices will remain as they are, but we will monitor the situation, and should there be further increases in the cost of the fuel, then we might have to relook our prices as well.”

Mr Meyer advised bus passengers to save money by buying Golden Arrow’s gold card and loading weekly or monthly products instead of paying cash.

The new fares would be available from the Transport Information Centre, at 0800 65 64 63, from Monday September 11.