A former bus driver claims she was at the receiving end of TransLink's pledge to crack down on fare evaders when she was fined $173 for buying coffee in a fare paid zone without a ticket Thursday morning.
Natasha Alderdice says she entered the area at Commercial-Broadway SkyTrain station without noticing when an officer stopped her.
"I just think it's really absurd," Alderdice told CTV News. "It's a cash grab."
Alderdice says she had intended to buy a ticket, but decided to get the hot drink first since the line-up at the ticket machine was so long. After being approached by the patrol near the coffee shop closely to the fare-paid-zone line, she tried to explain the situation – to no avail.
Though Alderdice understands where the officers were coming from, she still feels like she was treated unfairly.
"Yes, I was in a fare paid zone – to purchase a cup of coffee," she said. "I wasn't trying to rip off the system."
Transit Police had little sympathy for Alderdice's plight.
"You either have a fare or you don't have a fare," Transit Police Sgt. Tom Seaman said. "You're in a fare-paid zone and you don't have a fare, it's pretty black and white."
In some situations, though, such as with homeless people, an officer can "use his / her discretion" to determine the extent of the punishment or even grant a fare deferral, Seaman explained.
Just last month, the B.C. government tightened TransLink's powers to collect fines from fare evaders after the transit provider estimated that evasion costs $18 million annually.
"The free rides are over," Minister Blair Lekstrom said in statement at the time. "Every passenger who takes advantage of the system by not paying a fare only increases the costs for those who do."
With files from CTV British Columbia's Scott Roberts
