Transit activist Malcolm Johnston says TransLink's Dec. 9 announcement that it has selected Cubic Transportation Systems with IBM Canada to design, build and operate a $170 million electronic fare card and faregate system for the SkyTrain, Canada Line and SeaBus isn't news.

"I predicted Cubic two years ago. When Ken Dobell was involved we knew Cubic was going to get it," Johnston said, referring to the former deputy minister to Premier Gordon Campbell. "In this province, when you hire Ken Dobell as your lobbyist, you get your project through."

But TransLink spokesperson Ken Hardie notes TransLink, not the provincial government, selected the winning bid. He said Cubic is a sensible choice because TransLink has purchased its equipment in the past. He added that TransLink had an "independent fairness adjudicator" look at the selection.

"That fairness adjudicator has come back and said look, it was a square process," he said. By 2013, riders will gain access to the transit system with microchip-equipped cards that will work as passes or come preloaded with money. The cards will replace the more than one hundred different types of transit passes in use now, although cash will still be accepted to gain access to transit. TransLink will also eliminate zone pricing and charge riders for the distance they travel.

The project is projected to cost $170 million with $40 million coming from the provincial government, $30 million from the federal government and $100 million from TransLink.

TransLink estimates the system will cost $12 million to $15 million annually. Critics wonder why TransLink would pay for a system that would cost more to run each year than it would recoup in fare evasions.

A PricewaterhouseCoopers audit of a TransLink fare evasion survey in 2008 found evaders were cheating the system out of $5.3 million to $9.4 million annually. Many believe the rates are higher, according to Hardie.

"A very prime reason why we're going ahead with [faregates] is senior governments are going to buy them for us. We don't have to lay out that capital cost," he said.

Hardie concedes criminals will still buy tickets and ride the system. But he expects faregates to deter "a certain class of goof" from foregoing fares, jumping on transit and harassing riders.

Johnston has been working with transit consultants from the U.K. on a tram-to-train study for the Fraser Valley. He said a consultant told him that the U.K. is moving away from faregates, which are costly to maintain, and hiring conductors.

Johnston says electronic fare cards make sense in cities where different companies own various components of the transit system and the cards are used to apportion the appropriate fare amount to each company.

"I have a gut feeling that the smart card is being used as a benefit if they wish to privatize the public transportation system, and I think that's a real threat to our system," he said.

But Hardie said TransLink values its integrated system.

"It's not something that we want to give up because with an integrated system, you can do more than just simply provide transportation, which is always been the intention here," he said. "You can use your public transit system, with the roads attached, to really shape how the region grows."

crossi@vancourier.com