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Gautrain fares up

Gautrain users will pay R10 more to get to the OR Tambo International Airport under a fare increase announced on Friday by Bombela, the company which runs the high-speed trains.

The current prices for airport-service fares range from R125 to R145 depending on the length of the journey.

Bombela said all fares would increase by between five and 16 percent, with incentives for off-peak travel under a multi-tiered fare structure called Gausave, which was being introduced on June 1.

It would consist of red, orange, and green travel periods. Red was peak-hour, orange intermediate, and green off-peak.

The red fare would apply to travel between 6.30am and 7.30am on weekdays from Pretoria to Johannesburg, and from OR Tambo International Airport to Johannesburg, but not in the opposite direction. This type of fare would increase up to 16 percent.

The orange fare was for other travel between 6am and 8.30am, between 3.30pm and 6pm on weekdays, and all day on weekends and public holidays. This would increase by between about five and nine percent.

The green fare was for trips before 6am, between 8.30am and 3.30pm, and after 6pm on any weekday. It would increase...

A passenger buying a pay-as-you-go ticket for a single trip from Hatfield Station in Pretoria to Park Station in the Johannesburg CBD -- the longest possible trip on the Gautrain -- would pay R68 during the red peak period, R62 during the orange period, and R49 during the green off-peak period, said Bombela operations executive Errol Braithwaite.

Bus fares for train users would remain unchanged.

The daily parking tariff would increase R3, from R15 to R18, for one to 24-hours. Longer stay periods would cost more. A three-day stay would go up from R100 to R110.

Braithwaite said off-peak discounts were meant as an incentive for off-peak travel and to encourage commuters to try and travel outside busy periods.

He said the company offered regular commuters a 35-day ticket (44 trips) at about a 24 percent discount, and a seven day ticket (10 trips) at a discount of about 17 percent on the red peak period fare.

Weekday use of the Gautrain regularly exceeded 56,000 passengers, and that bus use was regularly above 22,000 people a day.

An extra eight-carriage train was introduced in April to cope with demand and more were in the pipeline.

Fare tables are available on www.gautrain.co.za.

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