Wednesday August 12 2015
▼ Heat cooks up a national win 15
▼ SFU pipers off to Scotland 13
The
Leader
ALL BUS RIDERS TO PAY ONE-ZONE FARE ▶ COMPASS CARD ROLLOUT GIVES A BREAK TO SOME TRANSIT USERS, BUT NOT TO OTHERS JEFF NAGEL
TransLink is switching to a onezone fare at all times on buses as the solution that will allow it to roll out its long-delayed Compass card to the entire transit system. It means a price drop of at least $1.25 for regular riders who now pay for two or three zones on certain bus routes that cross zone boundaries. The changes go into effect Oct. 5. Passengers on the 351 bus from White Rock/South Surrey to Bridgeport Station in Richmond, for example, will pay $2.75 for an adult weekday fare, effective Oct. 5, instead of the $4 two-zone fare right now. If they continue on to Vancouver via Canada Line they’ll pay a total of $4 instead of $5.50 previously for three zones. The same applies to riders of the 555 from Langley over the Port Mann Bridge to the SkyTrain in Burnaby. And passengers will pay less on several other routes spanning at least two zones, including buses that cross North Shore bridges, that connect Surrey and Delta to Richmond or New Westminster, or that link the Tri-Cities or Maple Ridge to SkyTrain. TransLink will also abandon the planned Compass card tap-out requirement on buses. That was a major headache for launching the smart card payment system because tests found
Regular transit user Carla Griffin said a one-zone fare should apply to all forms of transit, not just buses. Under the new Compass card system – which launches Oct. 5 – riders on SkyTrain, SeaBus and the West Coast Express will still have to pay multi-zone fares. EVAN SEAL many passengers forgot to tap out on buses and were then charged the maximum three zones when they only travelled one. Bus service also stood to be crippled by delays on busy routes if every exiting passenger had to tap out, particularly if provider Cubic
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failed to improve slow card detection rates of the Compass readers on buses. The change also addresses the fact bus riders on multi-zone routes would have been able to cheat the system and pay only one zone by tapping their card on the
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only within one zone and won’t see any savings. “I think that everything should be fair,” regular transit user Carla Griffin said. continued on page 4
▶ SOME BUS USERS MAY SAVE $554 A YEAR FROM SURREY, $948 FROM COQUITLAM JEFF NAGEL
How much will riders save if they regularly take a three-zone trip that will soon cost only two zones? A regular three-zone monthly pass user now pays $170 a month but will be able
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exit reader early without leaving. The end of the zone system applies only to buses. SkyTrain, SeaBus and West Coast Express passengers won’t get a break and they’ll still have to tap out. Multizone bus routes are relatively scarce – 80 per cent of riders move
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to instead buy a two-zone month pass for $124 – a $46 saving that adds up top $552 per year. That’s the scenario for many commuters to and from Vancouver from South Surrey by express bus and then the Canada Line, or from Langley via the Port Mann
555 express bus and then SkyTrain. A South Surrey or Langley rider whose destination is currently a two-zone trip away – such as Richmond or Burnaby – continued on page 3
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