TransLink should raise its Canada Line fares between downtown Vancouver and Vancouver International Airport because the current $3.50 levy for adults is "way too cheap," according to British Columbia Ferry Services Inc. CEO David Hahn.
"[TransLink] has to generate cash. That's the issue," Hahn told the Surrey Regional Economic Summit on October 6.
"We've been taken to task over the last six years for raising fares, but we had to raise fares to raise cash to build new ships, to transform something that was allowed to deteriorate."
TransLink spokesman Ken Hardie told BIV that the bargain Hahn described will end December 31. Starting in January, fares to the airport will rise to $5 per adult for a three-zone trip.
B.C. Comptroller General Cheryl Wenezenki-Yolland has completed work on her government-ordered review of how well both TransLink and BC Ferries operate and is expected to give her report to Ministry of Finance officials within the week.
Surrey mayor Dianne Watts chairs the 22-member mayors council that will decide by October 31 whether to approve a 10-year plan for TransLink starting January 1, 2010. Potential options include boosting the transit authority's budget by either $450 million, $130 million or not at all.