From the outside, there appears to be no operational justification for TransLink to cancel its current Taxi Saver program.
The program allows disabled and eligible seniors to purchase books of taxi coupons at a 50 per cent discount, with TransLink picking up the rest of the cost. The taxi rides offer a certain alternative to HandyDart bookings that are not always perfect in terms of timing. Moreover, the taxi rides are cheaper for TransLink than the equivalent HandyDart cost - even without the client's 50 per cent contribution.
Driving clients to a system that costs the taxpayer more while offering less satisfaction to some users only makes sense in a world created by Kafka and run by bureaucrats.
In a perfect world, the quasi-independent authority would revisit the decision, admitting there are other ways to limit the minimal cheating that takes place and that its overzealous action had thrown its aged and infirm clients under the bus.
Of course, it might not be able to do that if, as some clients suspect, the profitability of HandyDart is the real issue. In 2009, TransLink contracted out the operation of its HandyDart service to a privately owned U.S. transportation company, MVT.
If, as part of that deal, a certain level of profitability was promised, TransLink should bite the bullet and fess up that its hands are tied.
If that is not the case, there is no reason not to reverse a decision that was perhaps (let's be generous here) just taken in haste.
