The SkyTrain Faregate Saga – The Farce Continues!
While transit authorities around the world are doing away with faregates and turnstiles and investing in smart card that can be automatically read even if the card is in one’s pocket or wallet, TransLink, abetted by the provincial government is, at great expense, retro-fitting faregate to the entire SkyTrain/Canada Line system.
The real story about the faregates is very disturbing. Former provincial Premier and Vancouver mayor, Gordon Campbell’s good FriendAi??since the City of Vancouver days and recent winner of the Order of BC Ken Dobel, acted as a lobbyist for the company selling the soon to be obsolete faregates and as everyone knows, what Ken Dobel wanted, Premier Campbell granted.
Just another instance that SkyTrain and the Canada line are just a vast slush fund of taxpayers monies, enriching friends and cronies of the government.
Construction officially begins on faregates at SkyTrain’s stations
Ai??By Frank Luba, The ProvinceWhat took so long?
That was the reaction Tuesday in a quick survey of people outside the Broadway-Commercial SkyTrain station, where construction officially began on the faregates for the Compass “smart card” you will need to gain entry to the Lower Mainlandai??i??s rapid-transit system.
There will be 400 gates installed over the next 12 to 18 months, with the system to start operating in 2013. The $170-million project is being paid for by the federal government ($30 million), the provincial government ($40 million) and regional transportation authority TransLink ($100 million).
To avoid paying a fare, cheats will have to vault over the four-foot high gates or slide under the paddles that open when activated by a wave of the Compass over the fare-card reader mounted on top of each gate.
Scofflaws will have to repeat the manoeuvre again to exit the system, giving authorities another chance to nab them.
Greg Robertson, who splits his time between Vancouver and the Gulf Islands, was surprised itai??i??s taken so long to put in barriers to prove commuters paid their fare.
ai???They should have built them when they built it [SkyTrain],ai??? said Robertson of a decision that’s been criticized ever since the system opened in 1986 for Expo 86, a world transportation exposition.
ai???Every other place Iai??i??ve been in Europe and Asia, they have gates everywhere,ai??? said Robertson.
Sadie Lawrence also lamented the 1986 decision.
ai???I would have thought they would have done that [put in gates] from the get-go, based on Torontoai??i??s [transit] system,ai??? said Lawrence, 39. ai???Itai??i??s a bit ironic that itai??i??s an afterthought, but it will save money.ai???
Itai??i??s not like turnstiles or the faregates with paddles that will be employed in the Lower Mainland are a new idea, said Jane Harmon of Vancouver.
ai???I grew up in Philadelphia,ai??? she said. ai???I think we had them back in the 1940s ai??i?? turnstiles.ai???
Harmon liked the idea of smart cards, which she hopes she will be able to load up in the same way she buys minutes on her cellphone.
ai???It will just be more efficient,ai??? said Harmon.
Faregates are also included in the project for the $1.4-billion Evergreen Line, said Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom, if that rapid-transit expansion to Coquitlam passes the hurdles needed to raise TransLinkai??i??s $400-million commitment.
Because the faregates and Compass card make it tougher for cheaters to ride the system, the rationale is it will increase safety and security, thus attracting even more riders.
