Get your souvenir Olympic transit pass!
Get your souvenir Olympic transit pass!
Ooh — the six-week souvenir Olympic FareCards go on sale today!
Starting Friday, November 27 (not the 23rd!), you can pick one up at any participating FareDealer location, where our passes are sold.
There are one, two, and three-zone Olympic FareCards available, each with a different design. They’re credit-card sized and plastic, and the prices are 1.5 times the cost of a regular FareCard: $110 for one zone, $149 for two zones, $204 for three zones, and $63 for Concession.
The passes are all valid for the six-week period around the Olympics— February 8 to March 21, 2010.
Plus, if you buy your pass at certain FareDealer locations, you’ll also get a limited-edition Olympic transit map!
Plus, when you buy your pass at any FareDealer location carrying the Olympic pass, you’ll also get a limited-edition Olympic transit map!
These are pocket-size fold-up maps which show Olympic venues, festival sites, departure hubs for the Olympic bus network, and more.
And yes, if you’re wondering, you can still buy regular February and March bus passes from FareDealer as normal. No Olympic design, but certainly just as useful!
Here are the two-zone and three-zone designs as well. (Edit: The Concession design is now up too!)
Check your date… Monday is not Nov 27.
I have a Student FastTrax pass. Could I still purchase the 1 zone Olympic pass and travel all over 3 zones?
one more thing… do you have a list of which dealers are giving away the transit map?
thanks! :)
Is there also a concession Olympic FareCard?
Whoops! Fixed the date now.
Jamey: Yes, you can buy the one-zone Olympic pass and use it for 3 zones with your FastTrax pass. But since there’s still some days in February/March that you can’t use that Olympic pass, I’m told it is actually better value to buy the regular monthly passes. If you’re willing to take that hit though, go on with it :)
As for FareDealer locations with the map: I’m told that every FareDealer location that is selling the Olympic passes also has the maps to give away (they’re sent a matching number of maps for the passes). However, not all FareDealer locations have ordered the Olympic passes, so not all FareDealer locations will have them. I’m asking if we do know which outlets did order them though.
Jamey: Update! So far it’s hard to give you a general idea of the locations who have ordered the Olympic passes — it’s kind of spread out, and not all outlets have ordered the passes for sale yet. What we would suggest right now is that you go down and check your regular outlet, and if they don’t have it, ask them if they can order in the Olympic passes for sale. And I will update you on locations as we find out more of them.
Yes, there is also a concession pass! I didn’t get a picture of it though. I’ll see what I can dig up.
I like the design of these. so much nicer. Ummmm How can we make Translink update the design of the normal passes? the current ones are ugly as sin
Nick: I’ve just asked, and sadly there’s no plans to change the FareCard designs anytime soon. Apparently the latest redesign was just a few years ago so they’re sticking with it for a while yet.
I’m assuming the prices on the Olympic fare cards are a bit different than the month-long cards, yes?
And I can’t wait to get my concession fare card!
PS: I also think the regular fare cards need to be re-designed as well, contrary to what the first Nick said :)
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for 1 zone riders, if you feel real thrifty, buying the monthly passes for Feb and Mar saves you $2; assuming along w/ the Olympic FareCard you need to buy 2 packs of 1 zone faresaver tickets ($38) to cover the days (feb 1-7, Mar 22-31) the pass can’t
Olympic FareCard + 2x Faresavers = $148
Feb + Mar 1 Zone FareCard = $146
Again, if you feel the need to be thrifty.
I’m on the fence on this one. (not just for savings, more for convenience, as I don’t have to deal w/ faresavers)
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You can see the design with SAMPLE written over it:
http://www.translink.ca/en/Utilities/2010-Games/Olympic-Transit-Fares.aspx
I normally pay $99 for each monthly ticket which would normally cost me $198.00 for Feb and Mar.
If I wanted this Olympic special I would need to account for my journeys either side of this pass dates ie:
10 journeys Feb = 1 book = $28.50
16 journeys Mar = 2 books = $45.60
(assuming I don’t take more than 4 trips at the weekends)
1 Olympic pass = $149.00
Total price for two months = $213.10
Am I doing the maths right? Looks like I would be worse off by $14.00.
Looks like I’ll be getting the regular monthly passes, at least it will be a good deal for out-of-towners and non-monthly pass holders.
PS: Why don’t you up the frequency of your monthly passes i.e. quarterly, 6 months etc? It would be a lot easier than going to the store to buy them on a monthly basis!
You forgot to factor the 15% rebate from the federal government.
Steve: I am pretty certain that we haven’t done quarterly or 6 month passes or similar because the smartcard will be here in a year or so, and fare changes of that nature will very likely be made then.
Changes to our fare tariff have to go through our board of directors, so there’s some work and a fair stretch of time involved in planning the change, presenting it to the board, having it approved, etc.
Are the Olympic Passes transferrable, meaning can they be used by different people?
Judy: Yes, they’re transferrable, just like regular FareCards.
@Steve, I completely forgot you’d need 2 packs of faresavers for the end of March duration (22-31). that does drive the price up further.
revised calculation 3 packs of FareSavers, $57
Olympic FareCard $110
total of $167
again, Feb and Mar FareCards total to $146.
It’s settled.
Other than as a souvenir, I don’t see the point of this pass at all. What am I missing. If I buy monthly passes, why would I buy this when it leaves me with several days I need to cover with tickets? And if I’m here for the games, then transit is included in the venue ticket price.
Looks nice, but seems a waste of time IMHO. I would have preferred to see either the regular monthly pass redesigned for the Olympics ot a two-month pass.
Of course one pass won’t do…. You need to collect them all.
Update: I’ve put the Concession design up in the main post now! Scroll up to see it. Look at those mascots go!
David: I believe the pass is provided as an Olympic option for those visiting or those who will only be using transit during the Olympic period. The switchover in months won’t be an issue if you have an Olympic pass—ie: you won’t have to go out and find a FareDealer at the end of February. As well, you won’t pay for the Feb/March period where you’re not riding transit.
I hope Transink will consider selling these online, at a reduced cost, after the games, to us transit geeks who wont be able to attend.
Went to like 10 faredealers since Monday, and most of the clerks/owners told me that they’re starting to sell them on Nov 27. Guess I gotta wait :(
Ugh! Sorry Jamey. The 27th, I guess! I must have been a bit early.
Did you try the Metrotown Translink office? If anyone has any, they should.
Yes, I think post Olympics, those passes should have some value. If not, perhaps eBay.
Do these passes work in the same way as monthly passes do? Like “On Sundays and Statutory Holidays you can use your FareCard to take five other riders with you for free.”?
The passes are supposed to be exactly like regular FareCards, so I guess that would be true. I’ll double check that though.
Are these passes valid for the transit pass income tax return?
Ric beat me to my question….rats! Lol
I usually buy the monthly pass too. Not happy that the Olympic pass couldn’t cover the full two months. It seems now that not many locals will buy the pass if it is cheaper to buy Feb and Mar monthly passes.
So then I wonder how many visitors are staying the full 6 weeks and would use the Olympic pass?
Anyway, I will likely buy one of the passes as a souvenir myself, but may not use it.
Henry: Well, the Olympic transportation plan released a while back indicate that we’re expecting about a million passengers on the transit system every day—currently we have about 700,000 on the system daily, so that’s a lift of about 30%. (Here’s a Province article from March on that plan.)
Bear in mind that visitors won’t just be joining the system and using these passes — many locals who typically drive may switch to transit, owing to Olympic travel restrictions and because of the outreach to reduce traffic by 30% during the Games.
CJ/Ric — I’m confirming with our FareDealer office about the tax credit, but as far as I know these passes operate under the same rules as regular FareCards, which would mean that they are eligible. Again, let me confirm that though.
Does this mean we would need to surrender the olympic passes to revenue canada to get the credit?
I’m still getting those answers :) I’ll let you know when I know.
Jhenifer wrote:
Nick: I’ve just asked, and sadly there’s no plans to change the FareCard designs anytime soon. Apparently the latest redesign was just a few years ago so they’re sticking with it for a while yet.
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IIRC the last “redesign” was just minor tweaking (e.g. font typeface, size, position). Developing a pass design like the one for the Olympics would be another incentive for people to get one. Here’s hoping at least that the smart cards will be closer to this in appearance than the present bland monthly passes.
Hey, I have the answers from FareDealer! They’ve confirmed that the cards are just like regular FareCards. So all the same things apply: you can use them for the group deal on Sundays, and you can use them as an income tax credit.
;-):
Btw as far as I know you don’t have to surrender your regular passes to Revenue Canada for the credit — you only have to give them over if they ask for them later on. Did you have a different experience?
I guess it depends on who does your taxes. Perhaps my accountant is old school and wants everything submitted to avoid Revenue Canada questions later and speed processing.
Uh Oh!! I smell spam again!!
Deleted! Thanks for the heads up :)
What’s that sport called on the 2 Zone fare?
I think it’s Paralympic sledge hockey.
I didn’t get the free map when I bought my olympic fare ticket. The guy at the register told me that they are out of them and that I should go to other dealer to get one. I agreed to that and this morning I asked for the map at other dealer’s location and they refused to give me the map. They said that they got the exact number of maps to match with the olympic fare tickets. How can I get the map now? How come the location where I bought the ticket were out of maps.
Leosia: I’ve passed your comment on to our FareDealer department for a response. If worse comes to worse I can always mail one out to you!
Thank you Jhenifer, I really appreciate your help.
Leosia: Here’s the answer from FareDealer.
You can e-mail me your info and I can pass it on to FareDealer.
Thank you Jhenifer. You should receive the email shortly.
I received my map today :) Thanks for excellent customer service. You made my day!!!
[…] all the souvenir pass designs and a photo of the transit map in my earlier Olympic pass post. And here’s the Olympic pass page on the main TransLink site […]