Compass Update: Pre-loaded Compass Cards now available at Fare Dealers!
Compass Update: Pre-loaded Compass Cards now available at Fare Dealers!
https://youtu.be/qTc87uoi68g
Great news for Compass users and those who are making the switch!
Most FareDealers now sell $10 pre-loaded Stored Value Adult and Concession Compass Cards for $16 – these cards include $10 of Stored Value and the standard $6 card deposit.
This means you can buy your card and hop right on transit without having to load any other products!
Speaking of Compass, Monthly Pass users are able to load February’s pass onto their Compass Card today!
You can purchase next month’s pass online or by phone starting on the 16th of each month or at a Compass Vending Machine starting on the 20th of each month.
This way, you can load the pass early and avoid any last minute rush at the end of each month.
Remember!
You can load a Monthly Pass at a Compass Vending Machine (CVM) – it loads immediately!
You can find CVMs at all SkyTrain, SeaBus and West Coast Express stations, BC Ferries Tsawwassen and Horseshoe Bay terminals and 18 different London Drugs locations across the region.
You also have the option of AutoLoad when you register your card at compasscard.ca.
This means your Monthly Pass or Stored Value will always load automatically so you never have to worry about it!
Balance protection is another great benefit of registering your card!
So, if your card is ever lost or stolen, you won’t lose the products you’ve purchased.
Have more questions about Compass?
Ask away at askcompass.ca
Learn lots more with our Compass 101 video playlist: youtube.com/translink
Author: Adrienne Coling
I like the compass card concept, but I am surprised that there is no daily cap in place when using stored value. In London, the Oyster Card has a daily cap which seems fair to me.
Also, I’d like to see multi-day passes available, rather than having to buy multiple one-day passes
In reply to David M’s comment… The daily cap in London is anywhere between 9.30-11.80 Euro, which converts to about $14-18 CAD. I think day-passes are best if making several trips in a day. I also heard you could put several “day passes” on your Compass Card at one time but only 1 will be active for the duration of a service day, so that solves your multi-day pass issue.
I second David M on the daily cap. Instead of having Day Passes for $9.75, why not have a daily cap of $9.75? Sure, Translink might lose a little revenue from those that aren’t currently planning properly (either buying a Day Pass they don’t need or not getting a Day Pass when they should), but it would save people time figuring out whether they should buy a Day Pass and the hassle of actually buying it.
As for multi-day passes, I think David M’s point is that a 3-day or 7-day pass should offer greater discounts than 3 or 7 one-day passes, so Andy’s solution doesn’t address the issue. There again, there could be a multi-day cap to save people hassle. In fact, monthly passes could be replaced by a monthly cap, saving regular users 12 loads a year. 15-30 minutes per person times tens of thousands of people = lots of time gained!
Yeah, Ideally they’d follow the Oyster system built on the same platform. Maximum charge in a day is capped at the cost of a DayPass, and maximum charge for the month is the equivalent of a Monthly Pass for the amount of zones that you’ve used.
That way people can load their cards and trust that they’ll be paying their appropriate fare each month without having to worry about the cost/benefit analysis of Stored Value versus Monthly Pass and DayPass products.
I accept it wasn’t feasible at the introduction, maintaining the current fare structure. My expectations though for the 2017 fare structure review ends in switching to something easier for the public, that takes the guesswork out of having to predict what fare product you need any month.
I personally bought a Monthly Farecard for December on Compass, though half way through realised my usage would have been cheaper to just use Stored Value. The Cubic system can calculate that, and they would build trust in the system if it was built in that you’d never overpay, be it DayPass or Monthly Pass.
Hi all, thank you so much for the discussion and suggestions! During this time of transition, gates, fares, taps, etc are being monitored to see how best the system can service all riders. Please be sure to pass on your suggestions officially with Customer Relations.
http://feedback.translink.ca/
There is a large gap in the implementation of the compass card which I encountered a few days ago which makes travel inefficient and costly. A one-way trip from Mount pleasant to downtown Vancouver which normally involves taking the 9 and then switching to the Canada line became an expensive journey for me when I bought a single-zone ticket on the 9 Granville for $2.75. As I walked into the Canada line station, I realized this was not a compass ticket and therefore did not allow me access through the fare gates. As I approached a Canada line attendant and asked for clarification, i was informed that in order to get through, I’d have to purchase another ticket at the compass bending machine that is readable at the fare gate. That makes my journey $5.50 one way for a one-zone travel which is twice as expensive than it’s supposed to be. I realize that at that time having a compass card would have made my journey smoother and more affordable but since the bus was my first point of travel, buying a single zone ticket was my only option. This seems like a gap Translink must address immediately so more unsuspecting transit users don’t find themselves in this perplexing and counter-intuitive situation.
Hi Nadya,
I’m sorry that happened! We worked tirelessly as an organization to promote the fact that you do need a Compass product to use rail and sea transit. Some of the ways we’ve gotten the word out there since February and this announcement are radio, print and online ads, our social channels, media interviews and events, YouTube “how to” Compass videos, open houses and public engagement as well as all of the materials and posters on all of our transit vehicles. With Compass, you can seamlessly travel across the system. Buses will not be dispensing Compass products and therefore switching to Compass (and paying the lower per trip rate – $2.10 one zone – with Stored Value) will actually save you money in the trip you are describing. Please take a moment to view some of these materials located at askcompass.ca or translink.ca/compasscard. Thank you.