First real test for Compass Card system today
Posted January 4, 2016 6:37 am.
Last Updated January 4, 2016 12:02 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – How well will the Compass Card system stand up to a full commute, now that the holidays are over?
Although some transit users have been tapping in and out for weeks, today marks the first full commute since the cards became mandatory for monthly pass holders.
Those users have had to load those passes onto their Compass Cards since January 1st, with the elimination of the paper monthly passes. But the process has had some issues over the last few days.
TransLink’s call centre has been flooded — as has its social media channels — with complaints that those passes have been taking many people hours to transfer over to the cards when they should only take a couple minutes.
Some people have also claimed to have trouble buying their cards and loading them on compasscard.ca — something the transit authority blames on people plugging in addresses that don’t match the ones linked to their credit cards.
There haven’t been any major problems for the people NEWS 1130 spoke with this morning.
Karin has had a monthly pass on her Compass Card since the beginning of December and says she hasn’t experienced any issues. But did run into a problem with tapping in and out today.
“When you’re tapping, sometimes they won’t tap right away; you have to go to another stall and tap it… I had that happen this morning. I can see that causing delays in the future.”
TransLink has brought more staff into its Customer Information call centre, its Compass Card Call Centre, and a service centre at the Stadium-Chinatown SkyTrain Station.
The transit authority expects by the end of the week, 100,000 people will have loaded a monthly pass onto their Compass Cards.
