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CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2012
TRI-CITY NEWS CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2012
Olympics on the move?
Dentist helps out
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AUG. 16, 2013 www.tricitynews.com
INSIDE
Letters/12 Spotlight/29 Brian Minter/41 Sports/42-43
100 YEARS DAN EBENAL/THE TRI-CITY NEWS
Port Moody Mayor Mike Clay (on board the CP Rail first-class sleeper car, the Venosta, at the Port Moody Station Museum) and Port Coquitlam Mayor Greg Moore get ready for this weekend’s centennial celebrations in both of their cities. For details on the parties, see The Things To Do Guide on page 19.
Transfers costly without Compass Cash-paying riders who shun Compass to pay double By Jeff Nagel BLACK PRESS
Metro Vancouver bus passengers who now pay with cash and use a paper transfer to later board SkyTrain will find themselves paying double if they don’t adopt the Compass card after the new payment system takes effect in 2014. TransLink says fare boxes on buses won’t be able to issue paper tickets to cash-paying passengers that are compatible with the SkyTrain faregates. Passengers who try to use them will be forced to pay again at a SkyTrain station.
FILE PHOTO/THE TRI-CITY NEWS
The Compass smart card system will be implemented in 2014.
Spokesman Derek Zabel predicts the vast majority of riders will use the Compass card and have no problem but concedes more public education will be needed. A compatible system on buses would have cost an extra $25 million. “It wasn’t a cost-effective solution,”he said. Bus-to-bus paper transfers will still work, as will
SkyTrain-to-bus transfers — it’s only bus-to-SkyTrain transfers where tickets will be incompatible. An estimated 6,000 people a day use bus-to-SkyTrain paper transfers after paying cash. That’s a small fraction of the more than 1.2 million daily transit trips, Zabel said, noting most riders already use a pass or some other form of pre-paid fare. While Compass cards are expected to roll out before the end of the year — after an extensive testing period this fall — both the new and the old system will work simultaneously for months before the faregates are fully activated. “We’re not going to close the gates until people fully understand how to use the system,” Zabel said. The cards are being con-
figured to replicate existing payment offerings so users can load money on their card and buy the equivalent of a monthly pass or get a similar discount to the FareSaver prepaid ticket booklets by buying ahead. Discounts will range up to 14 per cent, according to Zabel. TransLink expects passengers will flock to adopt the reloadable Compass card because of the convenience it will offer — ending the need to go to a store to buy a monthly pass — as well as other advantages like transfer of the balance if the card is lost or stolen. Gavin Davies, vice-president of the CAW union local representing Coast Mountain bus drivers, said there’s concern angry passengers who are
forced to pay again to board SkyTrain will take out their fury on bus drivers. “They’re going to immediately retaliate against the next bus driver they see,” he predicted, adding driver assaults could increase. The move was blasted by transit users on social media and an online petition has been started demanding TransLink abandon the “double transit fee.” It’s not the only change associated with the Compass card conversion that’s drawing controversy. TransLink is also axing the Employer Pass Program that offered a 15 per cent discount to employees of participating employers. It was often coupled with employer-offered perks like preferential parking.
Saved! A harbour seal became separated from its mother Monday, and Hercules is now on the road to recovery. See page 3