Over at Stephen Rees’ blog, a comment from Vancouver City Councillor Peter Ladner started up a bit of discussion about Translink’s revised fare policies. All I have to contribute to the discussion are my recent experiences with the new Fare Paid Zone, which says, good luck to getting a straight answer on that from anyone, Translink or any Coast Mountain Bus drivers.
- Initially, when the fare paid zone came into effect, I thought, “Sweet! I don’t have to show my pass anymore, because bus drivers aren’t supposed to do it anyway.” I have a U-pass, also known as a 4 month transit all-access pass, so I figured I could load onto buses much faster instead of fumbling for my purse every time and save the drivers some time.
- 3 days into the experiment, a driver on the 135 told me I still had to show the pass. This is where the confusion starts. Didn’t that CBC article say that bus drivers aren’t responsible for checking anymore…? I figured that since Transit Police are the only ones writing fines, then drivers don’t need to check. The driver was quite adamant that I still had to show my pass.
- An incident occurred that confused me even more, so I sent an e-mail to Translink’s Customer Relations e-mail.
I would like to inquire about what Translink’s actual policy is on what bus drivers do and do not have the right to do as a result of the new Fare Paid Zone on buses policy.
Yesterday (July 24), on bus B8043 (135 SFU passing Kootenay Loop at 12:20pm), a driver asked to see everyone’s passes to ensure they had paid the appropriate fare for entering zone 2, stopping the bus and walking through to the back of the articulated bus. He drove for a block and a half, then stopped at a spot that had no bus stop, and asked a gentleman to get off the bus, presumably for being unable or refusing to pay the Add Fare.
According to reports such as the one from the CBC in June (http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2007/06/25/bc-bus-fares.html),
drivers no longer have the responsibility to enforce fare payment and fines can only be handed down for Transit Authority Police, not drivers.I have received inconsistent information from all the drivers I have spoken to, and the activities of the driver I encountered yesterday only further confounds my ability to understand what the rules are. Clarification would be most appreciated.
- The response from Customer Relations only baffled me even more:
Good afternoon,
Operators should still see valid fare, they may also check fares, what they do have is the ability to phone T-Comm (control) to have our police to board buses which have the authority to write fines and can also remove unpaid customers from the bus. With having Fare Paid Zones we have tried to take responsibility from our drivers and have consquences for our unpaying customers.
Customer Relations
Coast Mountain Bus Company
604 953 3040Thus addressing approximately zero of the actual experiences I had. Maybe I should have been more pointed with my questions, like whether this driver was within his rights in kicking the dude off the bus.
- Meanwhile, I have seen a variety of ways that drivers deal with non-paying passengers. Some of them are let on anyway with a stern warning (especially on the suburban route I take home). Some are told to get off the bus (typically on the 135 heading out of the downtown east side).
From a customer experience perspective, this is absolutely awful. I have a U-pass, I know my ability to use transit will never be in question unless I leave my wallet at home, and I’m grateful every day that the vote passed at SFU. I’m interested in visitors’ perspectives on this, in comparison from other transit systems. My only other transit experiences have been in Toronto, New York and Hong Kong – all places with elaborate and extensive turnstile systems to curb farejumping. What other places use the honor system and hire police rather than using technological and physical methods to prevent access to trains? Discounting buses, which are an entirely different venue, and where interactions will now be CCTV‘d – I’m interested to see whether there are stats from other places that might indicate whether this is actually effective in fare enforcement.
I’m not big on griping. There’s been a lot of excellent virtual ink spilled on this topic and I really don’t have much to add to it, except hope that there surely must exist some alternative whereby the honour system doesn’t involve armed guards and inconsistency on the enforcement and communication of the rules, as well as some, oh, I don’t know, participation into deciding whether these rules help create the communities that we really want? Maybe next time I’m on the bus, I’ll sit at the seat closest to the driver and read that huge panel of rules already. (The last time I did that I was in Hong Kong, where I found out that buses must have their windows open on the upper level during a typhoon.)
6 Comments
Asking people with insufficient fare to leave the bus is certainly within a bus driver’s prerogative, just as he can ask you to leave for committing other nefarious acts like harassing other passengers, drinking, smoking, blaring your stereo, singing bus karaoke too loudly, etc.
In the end, transit vehicles and facilities, though public infrastructure, are private property belonging to Translink (or the Coast Mountain Bus Company), and designated employees may ask you to leave at any time. Though they can’t physically force you to go without risking assaulting you, so that’s when they call up T-comm.
In excess of the above, transit police can also ticket/fine you, and should they find probable cause, arrest and/or otherwise manhandle you in a policely way as they deem appropriate and not likely to involve dealings with the police complaints commissioner.
I believe the bulk of the policy change is that previously, bus drivers were to be held accountable for incidences of fare evasion on their buses. That is, it was theoretically their job to insist to the angry drunk being picked up off Granville that they pay the full amount of the fare, regardless of how intimidating or inebriated they seemed. Under the new policy, this is no longer the case, the driver can let that person on with no hassle should the driver choose, but they maintain any power they ever had to ask people to get off.
I blame run-on sentence structure and overall grammatical ickiness on the part of the Coast Mountain Bus Rep for my misunderstanding. I read the sentence to indicate that the Transit Cops can remove people from the bus. Upon a second, closer reading, they did indeed confirm for me that drivers have the ability to remove someone from a bus for non-payment.
“Operators should still see valid fare, they may also check fares, what they do have is the ability to phone T-Comm (control) to have our police to board buses which have the authority to write fines and can also remove unpaid customers from the bus.” Where the heck is the subject for that the bolded area?
I must have come off a whole lot more radical than I actually felt…I don’t think I implied that everyone should be getting a free ride or that Translink’s right to remove disruptive persons should be curtailed. That said, I certainly don’t think making such an essential service less accessible is the highest expression of our collective humanity; but I get that it can’t be free.
Actually, an interesting result I’ve seen of the potential for random fare inspections is that “nice” bus drivers who would previously let people of little means and confused tourists ride for free (there are a few of them around my bit of east van) are now in fact issuing transfers!
And I apologize if the previous came off as at all means spirited, I just tend to get very technical and verbose whenever possible. Too many math courses.
most european systems ( i am familiar with Germany and Amsterdam and Rotterdam) are honour systems but at least in Germany and Amsterdam and Rotterdam they check 90% of the time. I would prefer the German and Dutch system: i.e. there were no turnstiles and you were checked more often. I haven’t been checked in over a year on the Sky Train.
I must have been in the 10% in Holland, because they never checked. Then again, I was only there for 3 days.
I noticed recently that the bus fareboxes have a new “dangler” saying proof of payment must be shown (pr words to that effect). I think the CBC article just spread confusion.