TransLink’s first fare gate installed at Marine Drive station

August 13, 2012

Posted by Vancity Buzz | 11 »

Today at 2:30 p.m. TransLink will be installing the first fare gate at the Marine Drive SkyTrain station at Cambie. The fare gate will be installed but not operational until all fare gates are installed.

Wai Young, Member of Parliament for Vancouver South, together with the Honourable Blair Lekstrom, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure and Member of the Legislative Assembly for Peace River South, and Doug Kelsey, chief operating officer TransLink, will be attending an event to mark the installation of the first fare gate at TransLink facilities around Metro Vancouver.

Why these weren’t installed originally is beyond me but it will be great to see a system with fare gates and the Compass Card in 2013.

Update: First look at the fare gate via @thebuzzer

Heather

And how are such low gates going to prevent people jumping over them? After all, most of the Skytrain stations are unmanned.
June

Why again are people so vehemently opposed to the fare gates? It’s about time our aging transportation system catches up with the rest of the world (e.g. Hong Kong, Japan, even *gasp* Montreal). In good ol’ Montreal most stations are unmanned, but have cameras.

Until I see someone actually jump the fare gates, I’m inclined to think they should be a sufficient enough deterrent. Of course the creative ones will probably work on their leaping skills, or find another way around the gates altogether. There will always be the errant soul who won’t pay up. The gates aren’t designed to get rid of the problem completely, they’re there to alleviate it (or at least keep it to a minimum).

I for one would like to see a cost-effective solution from the naysayers. It’s either we beef up security (impractical, given labour costs and unions only too happy to go strike-happy), add a physical deterrent or just throw our hands up in the air.
Magik604

What a wonderful waste of tax dollars.
Jon

The gates cost 170 millions to install, and are expected to save between 7 to 10 millions per year in fraud. That means they would need to be in place without modification, maintenance or replacement for 17 to 24 years before being profitable. So, you’d like to see a cost effective solution, but the fare gates are definitely not what you seek.
June

Sure, it seems like translink can be hemorrhaging $7-10 million every year…and get away with it. But when they try to invest in making our transportation system up to part with other cities they get so much flack from the masses. Seriously, I don’t understand why people are so up-in-arms with the whole fare gate issue. When you look at our neighbors to the east (Toronto, NY and further east like Hong Kong) you’ll realize how behind Vancouver’s transpo system is. Of course we will never be like them but we can certainly learn from our neighbours. We shouldn’t be making excuses – heck even Calgary probably has it better than us.

What will it take for people to realize that reforms are needed? Are we going to wait for the imminent immigration boom or a surge in population growth to realize that “hey, maybe we should’ve invested in public transit years ago”.
Jon

Entirely agree with you, Vancouver’s transport system needs to be improved, and $170 millions is a good chunk of money that could have been used for that. Fare gates doesn’t add anything valuable to transit users, it’s just an inconvenience to go through. You’d think the goal would be to make transit more appealing to increase ridership, and not frustrate users (imagine missing your Seabus because 1 or 2 person in front of you can’t get the fare gate to open).
Steven

I don’t see why people have a problem with the new fair gates. It’s about time Translink put them in. As for those that think people will just jump over them, I am inclined to think that most of the people that avoid the fares right now do it because no one can tell. Most people will stop the moment the fare avoidance the moment their actions are put on display (by jumping over a fair gate.)
Steven

Crap, I mean most people will stop the moment their fare avoidance puts them on display.
Mel

How would it take the upass though? It’s a really flimsy card..
Steven

Upass will likely change to the new Compass card as well.
Manfkdjfkjd

Sorry buddy but all the fair gates here in Montreal are manned, other wise people couldn’t pay their 3$ and hop on if they didn’t have the opus card.

TransLink’s first fare gate installed at Marine Drive station

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TransLink’s first fare gate installed at Marine Drive station

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