As I was reading my friend Marissa’s blog post on TransLink raising its fares starting in 2013, I remembered also reading elsewhere that not only were there going to be sharp increases in fare, TransLink was also planning on cutting routes and reducing SkyTrain frequency*.
This change in fares is seen as quite the outrage by Vancouver’s commuting population, whether it be students or people in the workforce. As it is, many people complain that the routes are serviced very infrequently and are thus very cramped. I, myself, have been left waiting for a bus that was supposed to depart at a certain time, but never really left… This left me no choice but to call TransLink and inquire about the whereabouts of the bus, only to receive a monotone apology along the lines of “I am very sorry for this sir, we will try out best to correct this in the future.”
For students like myself, commuting all the way to UBC from Surrey every day, I see the real face of public Transit and these fare increases will definitely affect my tuition as well, as the increase will be reflected in the cost of the UPass indefinitely. Not only is there a large void in the SkyTrain system (from Commercial-Broadway station to UBC), TransLink is planning on reducing service elsewhere to fund projects such as the Evergreen Line in Coquitlam (a fair bit smaller of a market). These factors are quite irritating to us as customers, but its the price we pay for such low taxes.
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