Comments on: Miss604 Poll: Skytrain Fare Enforcement

By: SkyTrain Fare Gates Poll » Vancouver Blog Miss 604 by Rebecca Bollwitt

SkyTrain Fare Gates Poll » Vancouver Blog Miss 604 by Rebecca Bollwitt — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 21:11:39 +0000

[...] wrote about possible turnstiles in SkyTrain stations back in November of 2007 and also linked back to where I mentioned that a smartcard system would be [...]

By: countably infinite » On politics and relevance

countably infinite » On politics and relevance — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 18:38:32 +0000

[...] for sure). I would rather that we inspire people – to be curious, to listen and learn honestly, to ask each other questions, to have fun, to get involved because it is fun – then make the decision themselves, whether to [...]

By: fotoeins

fotoeins — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 17:50:45 +0000

In Germany, entry into all urban-transport vehicles is possible through all doors. Plainclothed transit officers will typically wait until tram/bus/U-Bahn/S-Bahn doors are closed when they announce “Fahrscheine, bitte” (tickets, please). On-the-spot fines usually start at around 40 Euros. On Deutsche-Bahn long-distance trains, fare-checks usually occur about 15-20 minutes after departure. However, I’ve been on morning ICE trains between Frankfurt am Main and Mannheim without a fare-check, because the high-speed trip between these two major transfer points is only 30 minutes, and the DB-employees may not have enough time to cover all cars in that time.

The German verb “kontrollieren” means “to check”, or in this context “to be fare-checked”, which prompts the oft-asked question among ex-pats: “have you ever been ‘controlled’ on the tram/bus/train?”

By: nancy (aka money coach)

nancy (aka money coach) — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 06:19:04 +0000

Ugh. Turnstiles just seems so…. 1970s and unVancouver. Do we have any hard data on exactly how many people we share the train with, who have not paid? I personally don’t care all that much if it’s, say under 5% of the users of the transit. And what percentage of those people would suddenly become happy-fare-payers should we said turnstiles? I’d rather pay more, avoid the turnstiles and maybe have more spot checks. Yes to honour systems. No to regressing back 20 years.

By: Turnstiles, P3s, and Kevin Falcon | paulhillsdon.com

Turnstiles, P3s, and Kevin Falcon | paulhillsdon.com — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 02:01:36 +0000

[...] really hate rants, but reading all the stories today about this, I can’t help but make sure some facts here are more [...]

By: Paul Hillsdon

Paul Hillsdon — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 01:56:52 +0000

Adelaide: I doubt many would agree with your opinion of having a simple, set design for all stations. The Millennium Line stations have won several architectural awards, and they are incredibly beautiful compared to most rail systems in North America. One could make the comparison between a “just get going” and “well designed” -> The old SkyTrain cars and the new ones.

By: Raul

Raul — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 00:42:15 +0000

I just left a comment on Stephen Rees’ blog mentioning that Mexico City’s metro system (one of the best in the world, in my humble opinion) has very little fare evasion. Two reasons, in my view (don’t have the quantitative data to back up my claim but just from experience using it).

a). There are cops at every station and every turnstile. Fail to pay your fare, go to jail. Simple as that.

b). The price for a trip is ridiculously low ($0.10, that’s 10 cents of a Canadian dollar, or one Mexican peso).

I personally love the honor system, but I have been witness to one too many incidents of fare evasion.

By: Bradley

Bradley — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 00:21:13 +0000

just increase the fines

and more transit profiling! discrimination against hooliganish looking people is ok by me!

By: Tyler Ingram

Tyler Ingram — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 00:14:08 +0000

Would turn styles help lower crime in the areas though? Like Meg said they can be somewhat easy to jump over.

When I worked for a large retail company they were frowning upon the skytrain station being built near them because it increases crime (or so they said). They could steal from one store, hop on the train and goto the next store down the line and ‘return’ they item they no longer needed by ‘lost’ the receipt for. lol Turnstiles might hinder that but not really.

Though I took thought it was cool that you could just catch one of the trains without having to go through a turnstile. So if you were rushing to get to the train (not that you have to wait really long for the next one) there were not really any obstacles in your way.

Then like other said: the cost of implementation would exceed those of revenue generated. Instead of trying to catch people from not buying their ticket, why not spend the money on something else Translink needs to fix that would benefit all users of their system?

By: Jordan

Jordan — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 00:09:17 +0000

While I agree with Ryan (the cheapest way to enforce payment should be the way) as a daily Skytrain traveler, I support the idea in principle. Basically, I just want to know that paying for my monthly pass in the first place was worthwhile. (I haven’t been checked in months, since they don’t bother checking during the peak hours, when it’s busiest)

I took the TTC subway in Toronto for a year, and there’s no such thing as not paying there; in part because they have manned booths as well as turnstiles. Since we’re used to buying our long term tickets at 7-11 and Shoppers, that shouldn’t be necessary here.

For what it’s worth, I like the unique stations on the Millennium Line too. My fave is Lougheed, which looks like a Japanese temple.