Login / RegisterBus Riders Union to protest TransLink fare hikes coming April 1
An organizer for the Bus Riders Union believes the April 1 increases to prepaid regional transit fares constitute a tactic aimed at avoiding a full-scale revolt.
“We see the TransLink thing of raising the cash fare one time and then the passes another time as a divide-and-rule tactic, so they don’t have everybody pissed off at them all at once,” Aiyanas Ormond told the Straight by phone. “But people are starting to get it.”
Starting at noon this Friday (March 26), Ormond said his group will hold a day of action at the Main Street SkyTrain station. A rally will take place at 5 p.m.
“From 12 until 5, we’re going to do education, or popular education type activities,” Ormond said. “So we’re going to do a giant petition against privatization and the fare increase, which we are going to install up on the pillars at the Main Street SkyTrain station. We’ll be doing leafletting and all the stuff we’ve done in the past.”
Starting April 1, anyone using FareSaver tickets will pay $21 for a book of 10 one-zone tickets, up from $19. Two-zone books of 10 will cost $31.50, up from $28.50, and three-zone tickets $42, up from $38. Concession fare books of 10 will cost $17, up from $16.
A one-zone monthly FareCard will increase to $81, up from $73. A two-zone pass will cost $110, up from $99. And a three-zone pass will cost $151, up from $136. Concession FareCards increase to $46.50, up from $42.
Employer Pass annual fares are also set to increase to $846 for one zone, up from $762; $1,139 for two zones, from $1,026; and $1,561 for three zones, from $1,406.
Cash fares are not going up. It will still cost $2.50 for one zone, $3.75 for two zones, and $5 for three zones.
“Given that our biggest challenge was to preserve the expanded transit service levels, an increase in transit fares was considered a reasonable way to share the cost equitably between everyone contributing toward the additional revenue,” TransLink CEO Ian Jarvis said in a press release on the increases.
The last time fares were increased was January 1, 2008, when a one-zone cash fare went up to $2.50 from $2.25. The one-zone FareSaver tickets went up 10 cents, to $19 from $18, at the same time.
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This isn't about keeping cars off the road. It is about people whining to government to try to lower their cost of living. Public transit is highly subsidized as it is and the system needs improvements. Those who use transit should pay the cost of it. Raise transit fares! No one subsidizes my life so stop whining and spend more of your efforts trying to get better paying jobs.