Western Cape train commuters have been sold out, transport and public works MEC Robin Carlisle said.
|||Western Cape train commuters have been sold out, transport and public works MEC Robin Carlisle said on Sunday.
The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Friday that Metrorail had agreed to increase the price of monthly tickets by 13 percent and not the 27 percent from Sunday.
If this was true, Metrorail, Cosatu, and the Cape Chamber of Commerce, which negotiated the change, had “sold out” train commuters, Carlisle said in a statement.
He had consistently pushed for increases to be limited to single digits.
“These increases are on top of the 33 percent fare increase in 2010. Since then, Metrorail's services have deteriorated significantly,” he said.
Carlisle said commuters should be given at least a month to prepare for the increases.
Cosatu provincial secretary Tony Ehrenreich said single tickets and weekly tickets would still increase by 21 percent.
Metrorail, Cosatu and the Chamber agreed to that pensioners could travel free on Tuesdays and tha families would be charged R10 each to get to the beach and other social activities on Sundays.
It was also agreed to charge 20 percent of the full fare for the unemployed using trains for local job searches, and children going to and from local schools in off-peak times.
Metrorail announced on Thursday that fares would increase for the second time in nine years from Sunday because of an increase in vandalism and energy costs.
Commuters were warned that they would pay R1 more for all local single trips, R2 more for return tickets, between R8 and R14 more for weekly tickets and R24 to R42 more for a monthly ticket. - Sapa