TransLink closing last Compass Card fare gates on Monday
Posted July 19, 2016 11:45 am.
Last Updated July 19, 2016 3:25 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
METRO VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The last of the Compass Card fare gates will close Monday.
The gates for people with disabilities have been open while TransLink comes up with a way for people without the use of their hands to tap in and out.
A long-range proximity sensor will eventually be able to pick up the presence of cards given to users with disabilities, though that’s not expected to be in place until the end of next year.
In the meantime, TransLink says those customers’ options remain the Station Assistance Service, Assistive Device Program, or the HandyCard Program.
TransLink now says a million people — one in three in its service area — have a Compass Card.
It adds fare revenue for April, May and June of this year is up eight per cent over the same months in 2015. It estimates a two per cent growth in ridership over the first half of this year compared to the same period last year.
“We hired a fairly significant number of temporary employees to help at the SkyTrain stations with the transition to Compass, and eventually closing the gates,” says TransLink chief executive Kevin Desmond. “That temporary staff was in place prior to April 4 and it’s still in place, but that temporary staff needs to be discontinued at the beginning of August. Otherwise, by union rules, we would have to hire them on at permanent staff, and at very significant cost.
“The annual cost of keeping that staff in place would be in the tens of millions of dollars. From one standpoint, from cost effectiveness, keeping all of the gates staff for another 18 months, for a relatively small number of people that need that assistance from us, is outside the bounds of financial responsibility.”
Desmond says an additional three people have been hired to help with the existing station assistance program, and some people are being given special devices which can help them use the system independent of an assistant.
He insists people in the disabled community have been understanding of this temporary plan to call ahead before accessible gates are installed.
“We have, I think, general support for the long-term solution,” says Desmond. “I know that they were delighted — I had personal conversations with some representatives of the community about what the long-term solution would be and an understanding of what we need to do in the interim, both from a cost perspective, but also in terms of providing the type of good service to folks that would need this kind of support from TransLink.”
