TransLink fare gates closure looms
Many commuters rush to trade in FareSavers as Monday April 4 deadline approaches
The next big step in the Compass card roll-out happens on Monday when fare gates at SkyTrain and Seabus stations will begin closingand all users will need a Compass card to enter.
Starting April 4, were closing all fare gates. Only a Compass Card/Ticket will open fare gates. Get Compass today! ^LA
—@TransLink
The lead up to the big change has meant long lines at TransLink'scustomer service centre at the Stadium Station as many transit riders are exchanging old types of tickets such as FareSavers for the new card, which riders use to tap in and out of the system.
"We're averaging about a million taps a day on our system but as well as what we're seeing today is monitoring very closely the FareSavers that are coming in,"said TransLink CFO Cathy McLay. "So they're coming back into our customer service centre, so we saw this huge ramp up and now it's flattening."
McLay says the adoption ofthe new card has been faster than expected. She says the authority has added extra staff to manage line-ups until the faregate close on April 4.
#Compass VP says more than one million taps every dayabout 12 taps every second during service hours ^ac #TransLink pic.twitter.com/4ZAhvgAUWQ
—@TransLink
Still, the customer service centre at Stadium station is the only place where commuters can exchange ticketsand waits this week have been 45 minutes on average, said McLay.
"Staff worked overtime to get it down, and now we're finding that it's flat, but we're watching quite closely on that."
Any rider who has FareSavers or other older tickets can continue to trade them in evenafter the closure.
@TransLink Board told 700,000 Compass Cards now active on system. Preparing to close all gates April 4th pic.twitter.com/ukiuH4iq2a
—@BellePuri
TransLink says more than 700,000 Compass cards are now active throughout the system.
TransLink officials say all fare gates will be closed by April 8 explaining that every riderwill thus need to have paid, making the system more fair.