Markus’ Blog

It has been in the making for a while (hints here and there), now it looks like it’s official. Translink’s new price structure as of January 1, 2008 has been published on their web-site.

Unlike the last time around (January 2005), this time they are increasing the cost of (pre-paid) FareSaver tickets as well.

I don’t find the increase for a two zone monthly pass (from $95 to $99 or 4.2%) too bad, but at the same time the increase for a one zone pass (from $69 to $73 or 5.8%) seems a little steep.

I am not going to rant how evil Translink is for increasing the price. They have been doing a lot of improvement to the public transit system (new light rail, more and new buses, etc.). What I am going to say, however is this:

They still have a long way to go.

Why? Because there are still not nearly enough buses. I can only speak of the #8 Fraser route, but it is bad, seriously bad. In the mornings, because the buses are often completely packed half way down Fraser street going North and a lot of people get by-passed. Every single day. Sometimes about a dozen of them at one single stop. I wouldn’t be surprised if people actually got passed by more than just one bus. I am not amongst them, because I get on before the bus fills up too badly, but it would sure suck #$!#^% if I were.

At night, it’s similar, but worsened by downtown rush-hour traffic. There frequently are 15-20 minute “holes” between buses, which means that once a bus comes, it’s too packed to pick up passengers. Wait times for the #8 at night (going South) are completely unpredictable. You can get three buses in 30 seconds or you’ll end up without a single bus in 25 minutes — and then get three buses in 30 seconds (usually it’s somewhere in between). It has all happened. And I do end up stranded then, sometimes. (Just yesterday evening was one of these 25 minute incidences.)

So, I am sure people getting by-passed on a daily basis will have a hard time swallowing this fare increase. (“What? Now I have to pay extra just to be by-passed like before?!”)

Apparently not only the #8 is affected. It seems bad enough that the U-Pass (transit pass for university students) is now dubbed Pass-U (pass you), because students end up being by-passed by buses so frequently. (Found that in a comment to a CBC article.)

PS: In case anybody read this far a little “reward”. Are you interested in a paid-for 2-zone monthly pass for December? I only need it till (including) Dec. 18, so there’d be almost two weeks of two-zone traveling left (it’s un-scratched, so it could be turned from a zone 1/2 into a zone 2/3 pass.)

And just for my own reference, I am “saving” the old and new price tables here.

New Fares as of January 1, 2008

Old fares till December 31, 2007

Very old fares till December 31, 2005

If I can manage to find out, I’ll put the pre-2005 fare table here as well.