TransLink launches bidding process for brand new and improved Compass fare payment system, including new fare gates
Upon inquiry yesterday, a TransLink spokesperson told Daily Hive Urbanized that depending on the submitted proposals, the upgrades could offer digital cards through smartphone mobile wallets, incentives and rewards for using public transit, ticket bundling with events (such as concerts and sports games), distance-travelled pricing, and integrated payments with BC Transit’s Umo system.
“TransLink has heard from customers that they want new payment features like Digital Cards through smart wallets, integrated payments, and changes to the zone payment structure. None of these are possible with the current Compass system,” the TransLink spokesperson told Daily Hive Urbanized upon inquiry.
“More information will be determined on the scope of the upgrades, timelines, and costs once a vendor has been identified.”
The deadline for RFP submissions is March 20, 2026.
Potential estimated cost of $507 million
A TransLink staff report presented to the public transit authority’s board of directors this past spring noted that $3 million had been allocated to support the procurement phase of the project’s planning in 2024. It was also noted that the overhaul was previously deferred due to “resource limitations and underlying complexity in the scope of the project” and “competing priorities with other capital projects.”
According to the approved 2025 Investment Plan by the Mayors’ Council earlier this year, the preliminary cost estimate for design, planning, implementation, and installation of the entire new system is currently approximately $507 million. This is up from earlier estimates of about $220 million.
To implement the project, TransLink will spend over $7 million in 2025, $67 million in 2026, $105 million in 2027, $93 million in 2028, $62 million in 2029, $111 million in 2030, and $62 million in 2031. This suggests the new system could be ready by the end of the current decade or the start of the next one.
Currently, there are over 400 fare gates on SkyTrain and SeaBus, and thousands of card readers for buses and West Coast Express. The equipment requirements will grow significantly from the forthcoming opening of 14 new additional SkyTrain stations on the Millennium Line’s Broadway extension to Arbutus and the Expo Line’s Surrey-Langley extension, and a major expansion of the bus fleet.
Fare gates at SkyTrain Stadium-Chinatown Station. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
Compass Card reader on a TransLink bus. (Rosalie Che/Shutterstock)
Switching to accounts-based processing tech, and new fare gates and card readers
During his annual address to the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, held yesterday, TransLink CEO Kevin Quinn also elaborated on the forthcoming Compass overhaul.
“It’s a big undertaking. It’s a full revamp of our fare gates, of all those pieces on the bus that you tap, the whole system, as well as the back-end software. It is a several-year project, but the end result is going to be super cool,” said Quinn.
He also reiterated the major technological limitations of the existing Compass system, as TransLink has explained over the years.
The current Compass system, based on technology created by the fare payment industry in the 2000s, depends on storing data on the contactless smart card itself, while newer systems — such as BC Transit’s 2023-launched Umo system — operate on an accounts-based processing technology that stores data centrally, such as in a data centre.
Umo fare payment system. (BC Transit)
In essence, there is not enough data storage space in the existing Compass Card to handle a more complicated fare table that has the capability to achieve distance-travelled fares and discounts based on the time of the day or user group, for example.
“Right now, our system is quite limited in its functionality and its ability for the types of programs… We can do that with a new system, with new software, new back-end software that’s easier for employers to access. We can do these types of incentive programs that you’re talking about,” said Quinn.
BC Transit’s Umo system, in comparison, not only features a contactless smart card, but also a smartphone app for reloading or buying a fare product. With the Umo app, passengers can board the bus by simply scanning the proof-of-payment QR code on their smartphone.
Some existing compatibility between TransLink’s Compass and BC Transit’s Umo
There is already a degree of compatibility between TransLink’s Compass system and BC Transit’s Umo system, made evident earlier this year when a new BC Transit policy began to require passengers with the red-coloured BC Bus Pass Compass contactless smart card to tap onto BC Transit’s Umo fare readers onboard buses to demonstrate the validity of the card — replacing the previous method of a visual inspection of the proof of payment by BC Transit bus drivers.
Umo fare validator on a bus. (BC Transit)
Example of a QR code for the proof of fare payment on the Umo smartphone app. (BC Transit)
Both the Compass and Umo fare systems were created by San Diego-based Cubic Transportation Systems.
Cubic also provides digital fare payment systems for public transit services in San Francisco (Clipper card), London (Oyster card), Sydney/New South Wales (Opal card), Chicago (Ventra card), and New York City (OMNY card, replacing the MetroCard), as well as dozens of smaller public transit authorities elsewhere in Canada and the United States.
In 2011, TransLink selected Cubic to design, plan, implement, and install the Compass system, with the project carrying a cost of $194 million — including the construction costs associated with modifying and expanding some SkyTrain stations to create the required physical space for fare gates, which was particularly the case for the smaller concourse and entrance areas of the Expo Line stations. The Millennium Line and Canada Line stations were already designed in mind for the potential future installation of fare gates.
But there were some initial technological issues with rolling out Compass, resulting in major delays to its full launch. This particularly related to the bus card readers, with latency issues and a previously planned requirement to have bus passengers to not only tap on with the card upon boarding, but also tap out upon disembarking. To overcome the issue, TransLink abandoned the requirement to have bus riders tap out, and switched all bus fares to a single zone in October 2015, regardless of distance travelled across Metro Vancouver.
The complete transition to using the Compass system began in April 2016, when fare gates fully closed for the first time, representing a three-year delay from the original launch timeline of 2013.
Cubic also operated and maintained the Compass system, with an initial operating contract for 10 years.
Distance-travelled fares eliminating three-zone system
In 2018, after two years of planning and major public consultation, TransLink announced it would move to adopt a distance-travelled fare payment system for SkyTrain and SeaBus, effectively completely eliminating the three-zone system for conventional services. This would result in lower fares for shorter distance trips — including for trips just across the existing zone boundaries — but slightly higher fares for longer distance trips. At the time, TransLink intended to adopt the new fare structure in 2020.
Distance-travelled fares for public transit services are highly common, especially on Asian subways and some European systems.
However, by mid-2019, the transition to a distance-travelled fare table was pushed to beyond 2020 due to the identified need to overhaul the Compass system with accounts-based processing technology. It was later further delayed by the pandemic.
Based on TransLink’s statement to Daily Hive Urbanized yesterday, the transition to distance-travelled fares is now less certain. However, TransLink confirmed it will ask bidding proponents to include this option for consideration.
TransLink distance-based fare changes, 2018 plan. (TransLink)
TransLink distance-based fare changes, 2018 plan (TransLink)
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