As a commuter, the on-going uncertainty of the apparent Compass Card has got me questioning what the issue really entails. As Tristan stated in his blog, “TransLink was supposed to implement [the card] in 2010”, yet here we are in 2014, and there is still little indication as to when and how TransLink proposes to properly put this project into place. I enjoyed gaining insight of his approach and opinion on what seems to be “a colossal fail in operations”, a lack in marketing awareness, and information that is difficult to navigate through and is unclearly defined. Overall, there has been much controversy regarding this topic.
Image: Launch of the new Compass
Soon after, I came across a Vancity Buzz news article stating that by 2015, the Compass Card would be expanding its user-base to post-secondary students thus, the U-Pass BC program would be abolished. Though this plan does sound promising since we, as students make-up a vast percentage of public transit users, I have yet to believe that the timeline for the plan will go as indicated. The article suggests that instead of having to line-up each month for our paper passes, the new system will incorporate the usage of on-line load ups. Though there have been many faults in the system, I think TransLink is ensuring a reasonable and viable approach in order to dismiss former technical issues. If the Compass Card does go according to plan, I hope that time is not much of a factor as it previously was because the value of time is most definitely costly.
