Passenger Bus, Rail and Motorcoach Industry News

In the four months following a large fare hike and a change in offerings, the agency sold 353,798 passes — down from 628,648 in same period in 2011.

Station agent Jim Stanek gave $300 in train passes with unused balances to a needy teenager. He thought the tickets were going to be discarded. The agency says the leftover balances go toward BART’s general fund.

Agency hopes to prevent future fare evasion by retiring its 12-ride pass and six-month expiration, and replacing it with a 10-ride pass good for 30 days.

The University of British Columbia is changing to a monthly U-Pass system, which will prevent students who have dropped out of courses from keeping their subsidized transit passes.

Two men have been charged with stealing 80,000 prepaid Translink transit passes, worth an estimated $153,000, from the shredding company where they were employed. The passes were sent to the facility to be destroyed after an April 2010 fare increase.

Activists are protesting the agency’s use of passes with labels indicating “male” or “female.” The agency claims it is trying to prevent riders from sharing passes.