The Compass Card system was supposed to cut down on fare evasion, but it turns out some people have found a way to cheat the system and TransLink may have been aware of the problem for years.
Videos showing how to hack into the near field communication (NFC) technology used in paper Compass tickets have been online since 2012.
TransLink confirmed that it has identified 30 instances since December where tickets had been hacked and reset to allow travellers a free ride.
“TransLink did not anticipate how big this could be or didn’t believe it would be an issue, so they haven’t addressed it,” tech expert Dave Teixeira said. “Unfortunately they’re going to have to address this because people are finding out about this and it is incredibly simple to do and, with a little ingenuity, be very difficult to track who has done it.”
TransLink did not speak to Global News on camera but said they are monitoring the situation. It also said it can shut down those tickets that have been reset once the user taps into the system.
TransLink critics are finding it hard not to say, “I told you so.”
“The reality is that every time you try to implement these kinds of solutions and find a panacea for fare evasion you usually cost the people paying for the system more money and you don’t get the results you planned,” Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan said.
In the past, TransLink has estimated fare evasion costs them $7 million to $15 million a year. But the Compass Card project cost almost $200 million to implement and another $20 million a year to operate, leaving critics saying the $15-million tab for fare evasion looks like a bargain by comparison.
– With files from Ted Chernecki