By: Yagya Parihar, SFU Student
In my lifetime of using public transit, I only remember having been fare checked three times. All three times were in BC while exiting SkyTrain stations in late 2024. I tapped my pass on the fare gate, and the transit cop asked to see my student ID since I had a U-Pass. That first time, I was extremely lucky that I had just received my ID earlier that day.
About a month ago, bright yellow posters started appearing everywhere on buses, trains, platforms, outside station entrances, and at bus exchanges, all with the same dire warning: “Failing to pay or using the wrong fare can result in a $173 fine.” I was skeptical regarding the purpose of all this, but my thoughts simmered in the background until, after seeing so many yellow posters, I had enough.
It first must be understood what led TransLink to try this strategy. In the summer of 2024, TransLink announced they were facing a funding shortfall, one that could result in massive cuts to various services across the region (including the discontinuation of dozens of bus routes). About a month after, they announced a series of cuts that would amount to $90 million in savings each year. Aside from standard measures such as reducing hiring, bringing contractors in-house, and cutting back on community engagement initiatives, TransLink also launched a “high-profile blitz” in order to crack down on fare evasion. This strategy includes rapidly increasing the number of fare checks and the yellow posters. However, TransLink hasn’t given exact numbers on how much this blitz will cost. I can’t imagine putting more Transit Police on fare duty and installing posters everywhere was the cheapest solution. So what purpose does this blitz really serve? I have a few theories, and none of them look good for TransLink.
“This should be a sign for the provincial government to prioritize funding TransLink’s operations to ensure they don’t have to resort to such dire tactics.”
One interpretation is that TransLink wants to give the impression that they’re making transit safer without actually doing anything to impact transit safety. Many of the fare checks going on often happen outside the Compass fare gates in SkyTrain stations, not in the fare paid zones, and based on my experience as well as that of others, typically happen after tapping their fare cards on the gates. Those fare gates took hundreds of millions of dollars to install, and I don’t think TransLink doubts the integrity of fare gates, considering they’re going to spend $216 million more upgrading them. Instead, this increased enforcement is an attempt to signal that TransLink takes safety seriously in hopes this motivates people to take transit more, or feel reassured. This practice is called “security theatre” and is seen in places like airport security, especially in the USA, where the TSA’s security measures are meant to increase the perception of safety while doing little to stop actual threats. However, security theatre relies on the implicit biases of officers to determine who is the threat. It is profiling, and within a systemically racist criminal justice system, it’s more likely than not that these “random” fare checks are actually racially motivated.
In the fare checks I’ve been through, they’ve asked me for my student ID. There’s a possibility they’re trying to find U-Pass users who aren’t students. The rationale behind this I can understand; the U-Pass is intended for university students.
Stopping non-students from abusing the U-Pass seems like a logical explanation, but if that’s the reason there’s an entire campaign around fare evasion, it is not only a waste of resources, but also signals two things. It shows that TransLink is absolutely desperate or worse, that they believe this is a suitable thing to do. The latter indicates that TransLink doesn’t trust us, its riders, to do the right thing, and they’d rather use fare evasion fines as a revenue source. Through this lens, suddenly all of the yellow signs are insulting and borderline draconian.
I recently went back to Edmonton, Alberta, where I spent the winter break. The Edmonton Transit Service (ETS) doesn’t use fare gates, relying on the honour system. People still tap on and off, though, despite the unreliable fare readers. The most memorable poster I saw from ETS asked to “show kindness and respect for your fellow riders.” It made me feel respected and appreciated as a transit rider. The comparison just reinforced how bad of an idea TransLink’s blitz is; TransLink should tear down every single one of their yellow posters and use them as a reminder of what not to do in an informational campaign. Additionally, this should be a sign for the provincial government to prioritize funding TransLink’s operations to ensure they don’t have to resort to such dire tactics.
