Attempts to bolster its coffers are working after B.C. Transit made changes to its bus transfer system in the Capital Region.
Bus transfers that were being used repeatedly and sold on the street turned out to be a more expensive problem than B.C. Transit originally thought. It estimated it was bilked out of about $250,000 last year due to transfer fraud.
But B.C. Transit is reporting almost $500,000 in new revenue after it changed the transfer system on June 27. It brought in new date-stamped paper transfers and scaled the transfer window from 90 to 60 minutes. Transfer use was also restricted to one-way trips.
"And remember, we're only part way through the year," said B.C. Transit president and CEO, Manuel Achadinha. "We were really able to address a lot of the fare evasion (and) conflicts (between riders and) drivers have gone down."