Abus ticket has always been a valid fare aboard the Canada Line.
Until now. TransLink, the top-heavy money pit that has been the bane of nearly every mayor unlucky enough to sit on its impotent second board, now plans to introduce the Compass Card.
The card may be a good idea. TransLink's execution has been woeful.
It would cost far too much, TransLink argues, to implement a system at the SeaBus terminals and SkyTrain stations so that bus riders without a Compass Card don't have to pay twice.
What's more, TransLink's tireless canvassing of focus groups has revealed that customers don't want $9 million spent on new fare boxes.
It's good TransLink listens to its customers at least some of the time.
Listening to its employees may be another issue. Demonstrating the caution we'd expect from a major corporation, TransLink commissioned its own study on the cost of fare gates several years ago. The study concluded fare gates were a bad idea.
If nothing else, going ahead with a project repudiated by your own staff illustrates the pitfalls of political interference.
TransLink services one of the largest transit areas in Canada, and much of the service is quite good. Still, the notion of requiring some 6,000 riders a day, not to mention tourists, pay twice for one product is unconscionable.
A compass can show you where you're going. The Compass card is showing us what we should get away from.
