The Editor, TransLink says just 6,000 passengers per day pay cash to transfer from buses to SkyTrain.
Yet 10,000 bus trips per day system-wide terminate at a SkyTrain station. Is TransLink telling us less than one passenger from each of those buses transferring onto a train has paid a cash fare? That seems contrary to first-hand observation at some station such as Richmond's Brighouse Station.
All day, packed buses disgorge dozens of passengers onto the sidewalk in front of the station.
Many of those passengers, as they rush up the escalator to the train, clutch in their hands the white transfer they received upon dropping coins in the farebox, the same transfers no longer to be accepted once the Compass system is up and running.
Perhaps TransLink should clarify how they arrived at the "only" 6,000 passengers figure, lest the public concludes they are trying to force far more cash-paying customers to buy into the new Compass system than they are letting on.
David Magowan
Richmond
