First official Canada Line service day numbers! Plus how to work the new ticket machines
First official Canada Line service day numbers! Plus how to work the new ticket machines
It’s Canada Line’s first official service day!
So far, we’ve had 9,000 trips between 5 to 9:30 a.m., then up to 23,000 by 12:40 p.m. and 33,000 by 2:15 p.m. Our media relations guy Drew Snider says a lot of tourists and families were on board today. He also mentioned that we finished yesterday at just under 100,000 trips, according to ProTransBC public affairs manager Jason Chan!
Feel free to share your first ride experiences in this post, and check this other post for photos and video of opening day.
New Canada Line ticket machines: how to use debit or credit cards with them
We’ve been hearing that people are having trouble using their debit and credit cards with the new Canada Line ticket vending machines (TVMs), so here’s some info to help.
Canada Line TVMs are among the first in the region to accept debit and credit cards with a “chip” in them — a special computer chip for greater security which banking regulations will soon require all cards to carry.
What this means is that there’s a new “method” for using your credit or debit cards, even the ones that don’t have the chip.
On SkyTrain TVMs and other point-of-sale devices, you’re often required to insert the card into a slot and then remove it quickly. With the new system, you must insert the card, then hold until the amber light comes on beside the slot. You can also hear a “click”, as the card is accepted. Then the card has to be pulled out quickly!
Basically, the orange light indicates that the device knows a card has been inserted. The device then reads the card as it is being removed (swiped). However, if the card is left in for too long, the device “assumes” it’s an invalid card and rejects the transaction.
Eventually, these systems will replace the “old” systems throughout the financial world — including TransLink and its family of companies. Instructions on using the system are displayed on the TVMs, and a knowledgeable and helpful Canada Line Attendant is usually nearby to assist.
That happened to me. to be honest, it is not at all user friendly, as there is no prompt to pull the card out, so I just left it in waiting to be told to remove it – then got the invalid card error. This needs to be fixed.
That figure from opening day worries me. 100,000 per day is supposed to be their 2013 target, right? Although yesterday’s service day wasn’t even half as long as a normal day, I certainly hope that doesn’t mean that in the years to come we’ll have to wait outside in line for a train on a normal day.
I had the same problem as David — there’s no indication what to do. It says to insert the card, and then nothing. It was only because I knew how the old ticket machines worked that I was able to figure it out. There was also another individual at the kiosk beside me who was having the same problem. He assumed that because his card was chipped, he had to leave it in. I told him mine wasn’t, and I had to remove it anyway, and then it worked.
This is going to be a huge annoyance to riders until the instructions are changed.
Yeah, the machines are not user friendly at all. There are absolutely no instructions on the screen indicating anything the user should be doing. No prompts, no instructions. The old machines instructions were great. What happened?
On the old machines, the screen, right at the users eye level would indicate when you remove the card, and when to enter a pin. The screen explains nothing about blinking lights. And it is common practice to leave a card with a chip in the reader as the pin is entered, not pulling it out until you are done. So it flies in the face of common practice.
While I was trying to figure it out, everyone else who tried to use their card gave up and used cash, not one person successfully used their cards at the machines.
It took me about 5 tries before I figured it out. There is no indication on the screen when to look down and use the pin pad, it just comes up for a few seconds and if you aren’t fast the whole thing is rejected.
The machines are absolute rubbish. If this design came across in my office, it would have been criticized and picked apart by 10 different people, and there are only 10 people in my office. How does such a horrid user interface get past in an organization the size of translink?
Adam – Tuesday was a full day of service. She is not referring to Monday which was only 8 hours.
I did notice one good thing about these new Canada Line machines, the credit card reader is actually accessible for those of us in wheelchairs(and barely reachable from some scooters like mine), albeit the coin slot still appears to not be. Guess its a good thing I typically use my card. So when will the stations on the other lines get these machines?
But as to Philip’s comment about the chip cards staying in the reader, he is correct at least according to the information provided by Visa with my card, is that the card is supposed to stay in the reader until the transaction is complete to verify the PIN.
@Migzy: Each one of these machines costs $250,000, so I’m sure the other lines won’t be getting them for a while.
A good thing about these machines is they print the expiry time and date in large letters on the front of the ticket. No need to get your magnifying glass out to see if your ticket is expired.