Passenger Bus, Rail and Motorcoach Industry News

The discounted pass is an initiative from the government, TransLink, students and their schools, to help encourage 140,000 students to use public transit.

Includes Train Order Maintenance Sweeps, with transit police at Canada Line and SkyTrain stations around Metro Vancouver, stepping aboard each train and briefly scanning the car. Adopted after a recent bomb scare.

Coast Mountain Bus and TransLink bus drivers recorded unpaid fares 2.5 million times last year. The actual number is expected to be higher. A recent TransLink audit found fare evasion across the system rose 120% from an estimated $6.6 million in losses in 2001 to $14.5 million last year.

New law allows both transit police and transit security to issue fare evasion tickets and send those that go unpaid to collection agencies. People who don’t pay could risk losing renewal or issue of a driver's license or vehicle registration.

Posting updates of where and when some SkyTrain fare stings will run. The agency estimates it loses $7 million a year through fare evasion.

The original decision grew out of discussions on how to meet growing demand for custom transit services. The goal was to redirect funding from TaxiSaver to improve these services. However, customer feedback indicated that TaxiSaver provides a valuable service to those in need and is integral to making the transit system accessible.

Bob Paddon came to TransLink in 2001 from Metro Vancouver, bringing expertise in local government, communications, media relations and business administration. He was also part of the Metro Vancouver team that created TransLink.

The bus location information and predicted departure times at stops comes from the Transit Management and Communication System that INIT provided through MOBILE-ITCS and is accessible to TransLink’s Web interface through a standardized Service Interface for Real-time Information.

Part of the transit system’s mobile site, m.translink.ca, the service provides “predictive” departure times and real-time bus locations.

According to an efficiency review of the transit authority, it cost $27.1 million last year to run the transit police — a 111% increase since 2006, which is partly because of additional officers assigned to the Canada Line.