Translink Fares Go Up January 1, 2013
byI remember a time when I could ride the SkyTrain for 75 cents. Mind you, the SkyTrain ended at Scott Road and there was only one line, not three. Fare hikes are an inevitable part of life in a major metropolitan area with the last one around here taking place April 1st, 2010. The Translink Buzzer Blog has laid out the changes that will take effect January 1, 2013:
- Almost all fares will rise except for all adult FareSavers and some AddFares. Here’s the full list of fare changes, including West Coast Express fare increases.
- Most increases reflect the cost of inflation over the past five years, at a rate of 2% per year.
- Cash, DayPass, and short-term West Coast Express fares haven’t increased since 2008.
There are some questions in the comments of the Buzzer Blog post that Jhenifer from Translink has answered such as:
Q: “I have a few $9 DayPasses saved on hand just in case. If I don’t use them by January’s fare increase, will I still be able to use them?”
A: “You can still use old DayPasses and FareSavers even if the fare increase has already taken effect. This happened during our last fare increase in 2010—FareSaver prices were increasing on April 1, 2010, so lots of people stocked up on FareSavers at the cheaper price before that.”
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For additional comments or answer options not given in the poll, please use the comments to discuss. Read more about the full changes that will be happening in the New Year and follow @Translink on Twitter for daily route information and general questions.
3 Comments — Comments Are Closed
I’m really frustrated to hear about the fare increase. I’ve never had a problem with Vancouver transit in the past, until I moved to the West End last year. There’s only one bus route available for all of English Bay and Denman area. It’s a tiny shuttle that only takes 24 people. Every single day I see crowds of people left standing in the rain at each stop because they can’t fit on. Basically the driver can only pick up people from the first few stops and then has no choice but to drive right by all the rest. I’d say that there’s pretty much double the amount of people than there is seats on the buses.
Just to add insult to injury, these little shuttles very regularly break down and seem to be late way more often than they are on time. The times they actually come bare no resemblance whatsoever to the time table. “every five minutes’ is often more like every 25 minutes. That’s a long time to be late for work. The whole route is completely unreliable and often completely down to luck.
I’d be happy to pay more if the service was going to be improved, but I very much doubt my little west end bus is a priority.
QUOTE: ‘Almost all fares will rise except for all adult FareSavers and some AddFares.’
NOT TRUE
I am over 65-years-old.
Right now I have a book of concession tickets @ $17.00
The NEW price of concession tickets will be going up to $17.50.
How is that fair when the the adult book of 10 faresaver tickets will remain the same?
Are seniors second class citizens now?
To be honest, this means I’m going to drive more. I use transit quite heavily, but my partner has a car because transit doesn’t reach his job in Abbotsford. Since we have to pay to maintain a car anyway, driving has become far cheaper than riding the Skytrain or taking the bus. I will continue to use transit, yet I simply can’t justify taking transit more than one zone during peak hours, or when two (or more) of us are travelling together.