Dear Editor,
Several days ago, my son was in a hurry to catch a train in Richmond.
Without considering the consequence, he ran for the train without validating the pack of tickets I bought for him. He was caught by the transit officer for failing to produce a valid ticket. Right on the spot, he was handed a $173 fine.
Yes, $173. You are not violating the traffic bylaw like illegal parking, which may cost you $35, or speeding your vehicle, which probably costs you a hundred something.
There are different levels of penalty in the Motor Vehicle Act and municipal bylaws, depending on the severity.
TransLink’s power to penalize people is way too arbitrary and out of proportion.
For a student, who works for minimum wage, $173 is a heavy penalty, way out of proportion to the infraction.
How many hours of physical activity or social life are forsaken to earn that amount; even the working poor cannot afford a ticket of $173
My son said it was his mistake and has accepted the ticket as a pricey lesson; for me, as a parent, this situation just illustrates the unfairness in the penalty system.
This is a first-hand experience of how TransLink sucks the blood out of an average family trying to rely on public transit instead of a private vehicle.
Furthermore, when considering how millions of dollars have been wasted on the Compass Card, and all those failures in operation, there is no penalty, no sorry, from the TransLink side, because it is other people’s money.
Albert Tsui
Richmond
