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Wednesday 4 April 2012
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) MyCiTi card not transferable
One card, one person LEON STEENKAMP
A father from Table View is outraged after his son and a friend were physically removed from a MyCiTi bus after making use of the same pay card. Colin Clarke says he is struggling to understand why each separate passenger has to have their own MyCiTi card. “Surely if there is money on the card it can be used for more than one passenger or is this just a way for Absa to make money,” he asks. “Is MyCiTi making money from the fares or the cards?” Clarke says his 16-year-old son and his female friend were removed from a MyCiTi bus recently by the driver “using physical force”. “Unfortunately my son did not get the driver’s name. If he had I would have laid an assault charge against him.” The reason for the abuse was that that his son’s girlfriend threw her card out of the bus window to a friend to be used to pay for his trip as well. “The driver saw this and took exception to it,” Clarke says. Although the young man tried to tell the driver that it wasn’t he who threw out the card the driver continued to manhandle him off the bus. “This friend told the driver that it was she who did it but he couldn’t care less,” Clark said. Brett Herron, mayco member for transport, roads and stormwater regrets the unpleasant manner in which the incident was handled. “I apologise for the way the situation was handled. Whenever possible we prefer to get as many details as possible in order to be able to fully investigate these incidents and take the necessary course of action,” Herron said. He said details like the time of the trip, the
station or stop from which the bus departed, and where possible the driver’s name and the bus number – a red number on a white sticker displayed in the rear and side window of the bus must accompany the complaint. Herron reiterated that the usage of one MyConnect card by more than one commuter is not allowed. “The reasoning behind the one-card-perpassenger ruling is that in the second half of the year we will be changing the structure of the tariffs charged for the buses, moving to a much fairer, distance-based fee structure. When we introduce this fare structure customers will be required to tap into the system and tap out when the leave the system. According to the distance they have travelled the correct fare will be calculated and will then be deducted from the card. This then makes tapping in for more than one person impossible as the whole system will change from a fixed fare to a distance related fare,” he explained. The first time the card is tapped is for boarding the bus, and, as far as the system is concerned the second tap would be for departing the system. Therefore the second tap cannot occur immediately after the first tap, nor at the same point where the first tap occurred. Herron said the distance related fare will benefit customers as they are only charged based on the distance travelled. “We do not want people to get into the habit of sharing cards as, when we change over to the new system it would require them to have to make another adjustment and change their habits.” Herron also stressed that the initial R22 cost of the card is heavily subsidised. “Unfortunately the city could not carry the full cost of the card. If we tried this approach it would force an increase elsewhere to cover the cost to the city, such as an increase in rates,” he said.
Strapped for cash Staff of the ACVV Koeberg were constrained to a 4x2 “prison cell” on Friday as part of an annual fundraising campaign. Where the ACVV gang had an all too real experience in the actual cells of the Melkbosstrand Police Station last year, this year they opted for a makeshift prison in the parking lot of the Birkenhead Shopping Centre. Being in the public eye meant more donations from members to help bail out the inmates. Some 15 children from the ACVV Koeberg’s Grade R class were also present and treated to rides on the Tweetieville Fire Truck. Photo: Leon Steenkamp