It’s expected the next steps in implanting a new ‘smart card’ fare payment system, as well as entrance turnstiles, at SkyTrain stations will be decided Friday.
TransLink board members were expected to deliberate on the issue at a meeting today.
“Management will be making recommendations on policy decisions that will define the scope of the smart card and fare gate project,” according to a paragraph summary of today’s agenda.
TransLink board meetings are no longer open to the public after a provincially mandated shake-up to the system deposed the previous board, made up of Lower Mainland politicians.
According to the agenda, decisions to be discussed include:
- Provisions for occasional cash paying customers
- Whether both entry and exit from the transit system will be required to recorded
- Integration of West Coast Express, and
- Commercial aspects of the smart cards
TransLink spokesperson Ken Hardie said Friday that an announcement on the board’s decision probably won’t come until next week. But TransLink does intend to proceed with instituting a smart card system.
“The situation is that TransLink is intent on going forward with them,” Hardie said. “We want to do it sooner rather than later.”
That decision can, but won’t necessarily include, Hardie said, some kind of fare gate or turnstile system.
But provincial NDP MLA Adrian Dix criticized what he sees as a delay in making a decision. B.C. Liberal Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon said in 2007 that turnstiles could come to TransLink as early as last year.
“What Falcon said was there was going to be turnstiles,” Dix said. “He announced it from on high. Since then nothing has happened.”
Dix, who has been an outspoken critic of TransLink safety measures after several high-profile assaults around SkyTrain stations in his East Vancouver neighbourhood, says he doesn’t necessarily place a high priority on turnstiles.
“But I think the turnstiles proposal would help in terms of public safety,” he said. “I’m disappointed that it hasn’t happened yet.”
Dix said he has noticed an improvement in terms of a human presence at SkyTrain stations since his early criticisms.
“I feel we’ve had some impact on TransLink on the redeployment side,” he said. “I’d like to see them go back to what SkyTrain customers asked for, which is a consistent human presence at the station.”
A 2007 report done for TransLink found an overwhelming majority of passengers already pay their fares.
The audit, by PricewaterhouseCoopers, found the rate of fare evasion across the entire system hovered around 2.5 per cent. SkyTrain had a rate of 5.4 per cent. In total, the report estimated TransLink was missing out on between $5.3 and $9.5 million in fare revenue.
At the time, critics seized on the report to suggest TransLink didn’t need a costly fare gate system.
“It doesn’t make financial sense,” Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan, a frequent sparring partner of the provincial government, said at the time. “There’s no possible way you could recover your expenses from fares.”
