Getting Around Metro Vancouver: TransLink, Fare Zones and the Compass Card

A regional authority, not a city department

TransLink was created to plan, fund and deliver transit across the Metro Vancouver region, and its mandate spans municipalities with very different densities and travel patterns. The City of Vancouver is one of the municipalities it serves, not the organisation that runs it.

That has a practical consequence for anyone trying to get something fixed. A transit question is never a City of Vancouver question. Van311 will not action a bus complaint, the City cannot change a route, and a fare dispute belongs with the transit authority rather than with City Hall.

The modes that make up the network

SkyTrain is the backbone. It is an automated light metro running driverless trains on fully grade-separated track, which is why the system sustains high frequencies without the operating cost structure of manually driven trains. Because the track is separated from road traffic, SkyTrain is far less affected by congestion than buses — but it also has no easy diversion when something blocks the line, so a disruption tends to be serious rather than merely slow.

The remaining modes are easy to overlook and worth knowing:

• The SeaBus is a passenger ferry across Burrard Inlet linking downtown Vancouver with the North Shore. It carries foot passengers rather than vehicles and runs to a timetable, which makes it a different kind of service from everything else in the network.
• The West Coast Express is a commuter rail service running on existing rail corridors between the Fraser Valley and downtown Vancouver. It operates in a peak-direction pattern, so it is designed for commuting in and out rather than all-day travel, and it is priced on its own structure and zones.
• The bus network supplies the coverage that rail cannot, reaching municipalities with no rail service. For a large share of Metro Vancouver residents the bus is the whole transit system rather than a feeder to something else.
• The Canada Line, part of SkyTrain, connects downtown with Vancouver International Airport, which makes YVR one of the few Canadian airports with a rail link built into the regional network.

How the fare zones work, and the airport add-fare

Metro Vancouver is divided into three fare zones, and what you pay depends on how many zone boundaries you cross and when you travel. The mode matters as much as the distance: a bus trip is treated completely differently from a rail trip over the same ground.

• All bus and HandyDART trips are a one-zone fare at all times, whatever distance they cover.
• SkyTrain requires a one-, two- or three-zone fare depending on the time, the day and how many zone boundaries the journey crosses.
• SeaBus requires a one- or two-zone fare depending on the time and day.
• Everything across the system is a one-zone fare on weekday evenings after the evening changeover, all weekend, and on provincial statutory holidays.
• A single fare includes a timed transfer window across bus, SkyTrain, SeaBus and HandyDART, extended when a West Coast Express leg is involved.

The Compass Card and the Compass Mini

The Compass Card is a reloadable fare card that works across the region and doubles as enrolment for the Bike Parkade programme. It can hold Stored Value, which behaves like cash on the card, or prepaid passes. A refundable deposit applies to the card, and TransLink publishes both the deposit and the refund conditions.

Cards are bought and loaded online at compasscard.ca, at Compass Vending Machines, through Compass Retailers, and at the TransLink Customer Service Centre at Waterfront Station. Concession cards, which are orange, are issued to HandyCard holders, to seniors aged 65 and over, and to youth aged 13 to 18, with photo identification required for the age-based categories.

The Compass Mini is one of TransLink’s wearables: a small keychain-format fare product that behaves exactly like a Compass Card, including tapping in and out, AutoLoad, and use for monthly and day passes. Because wearables have to be encoded with a special machine before first use, they are only sold at the TransLink Customer Service Centre at Waterfront Station. When tapping a mini, hold it flat against the reader until it beeps. Compass wristbands work the same way.

Passes, tickets and contactless payment

Short-term visitors and occasional riders have several options besides Stored Value, and they are not interchangeable.

• A DayPass gives unlimited travel on buses, SkyTrain, SeaBus and HandyDART from the start of the first service of the day until the following early morning, across all zones. It is not valid on the West Coast Express. It can be loaded onto a Compass Card for later use, or bought as a paper Compass DayPass Ticket, which is only usable on the day of purchase.
• A Compass Ticket is a single-use ticket bought at a Compass Vending Machine at the cash rate, and it allows transfers within the number of zones purchased for its validity window. Tickets bought at a machine are only usable on the day of purchase.
• A Monthly Pass gives unlimited SkyTrain and SeaBus travel within the number of zones purchased, unlimited bus travel at any time, and travel across all zones on all modes on weekends, statutory holidays and weekday evenings. West Coast Express passes are sold separately because they are priced differently.
• Contactless payment works for a single adult fare: tap an Interac debit card, a credit card or a mobile wallet directly on the fare gate or bus card reader. Because the single adult cash fare applies, discounted fares are not available this way.

Accessibility, HandyDART and the HandyCard

HandyDART is TransLink’s shared-ride, door-to-door service for people who cannot use conventional transit without assistance. It runs across the region, its fares match the one-zone conventional fare, and the Compass system works on it. Children aged 12 and under ride free across the network, including on HandyDART for registered customers and children accompanying one.

The HandyCard is separate from HandyDART. It allows travel at concession fare prices on conventional transit and gives free travel to an assistant or caregiver, and it must be carried as proof of eligibility. It cannot be used to obtain concession fares on HandyDART itself. To be eligible you must be 12 or older, live within TransLink’s service region, and have a permanent disability that prevents you using public transit without assistance; the application requires verification by a family doctor.

On the conventional network, accessibility varies by mode. SkyTrain stations are generally equipped with lifts, buses are low-floor, and the SeaBus is designed for foot passengers including wheeled access. Because a single lift outage can make an otherwise accessible route unusable, TransLink’s own accessibility information for the specific stations on your route is more reliable than an assumption that the network behaves uniformly.