Thursday, April 1, 2010

Fare Gate for Buses

Minister of Transportation Shirley Bond, after returning from a visit to Brazil with staff from the ministry, has decided to install fare gates on all TransLink buses. As you know, TransLink no longer requires bus drives to perform fare checking after declaring all buses “fare paid zones” last year. Based on a survey, TransLink pegs fare evasion at around 3% on the bus network. Minister Bond doesn't buy that. According to local media:
"It [3 per cent] is almost a ridiculously low figure," she said, based on a tour of the gated bus system in Novo Hamburgo, Brazil.

"When I provided that [3 per cent] figure to the head of Trensurb, he laughed out loud," she said.

"Young people come up to me all the time and tell me they never pay," he said.

"It [evasion] is probably closer to eight to 10 per cent" in B.C., said Bond, which would put losses as high as $70 million a year.”
The article goes on to state that Bond really enjoyed having a dedicated fare checker on each bus and can’t wait to see this in Metro Vancouver. When asked how TransLink was going to pay for the estimated $200 million in fare gates plus new fare checkers, Bond said:
“With the upcoming changes we plan to introduce to TransLink’s governance, our government believes that TransLink will have adequate funding for this project.”
More property tax?

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