Transit riders face long lines to add tickets to new EasyGo fare cards

The Charles Street bus terminal in Kitchener saw long lines Monday afternoon as customers waited to top up their monthly passes or add the value from unusedpaper tickets to their new EasyGo cards.

Gethyn Benison, project manager for Grand River Transit, says extra staff were on hand to help people, but there was a high demand for customer service.

"There are going to be people getting new cards. Sometimes those transactions take a little longer because of that, the set-up time's a little longer," he said Monday afternoon.

The EasyGo card has been rolling out over the last six months and "generally speaking, everything is working quite well."

15,000 cards have been issued since the beginning of March, Benison said.

"People are obviously excited because we've issued a lot and we're being asked to issue even more," he said.

Peter Zinck, the region's director of transit services, noted people can avoid the long lines by loading their cards online.

People who have paper tickets can still use themuntil the launch of the ION LRT service.

The region has not yet announced when the ION will begin service, although staff have said it's anticipated to happen this spring.