Agreed, that's elder abuse.

only thing I dont understand is.. why did he walk up to ask officers instead of some random pedestrian thats at the platform.

So many one-sided replies here. How exactly were the officers supposed to know if gramps can't communicate in English with them?

I'd call in and politely explain the situation.

He may have went up to the officers because for translink. Who else knows the system better than the employees that work there? His grandpa may have thought it would've been an hassle to bother random bypassers
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Funny thing I had problems at a McDonald's in Germany.

I can't blame your grandpa for having issues inserting the faresavers. I take the transit quite regularly and I had issues inserting it correctly at times. I even encountered numerous times where regular riders having the same issues inserting it 4x and still get it wrong resorting to the driver inserting it for them.

It's crazy how specific it has to be inserted.

When I take subways in other countries, and need help with directions or fare, I prefer to ask transit people for help. I will be more confident their answer is more correct (rather than a rushed response from commuters)

:suspicious: :fulloffuck:


The ticket will prevent him from renewing his license. Until the ticket is either paid or disputed and the case is completed, you can't renew.

If he's here for 6 months or more and why does he need a BC DL? Especially if he cannot communicate or understand? Was he going to drive a car where majority of road signs are in English???

Your story seems fishy OP... your answers only lead to more questions.

Because drivers licenses, as with PR cards, seem to be available from vending machines these days.

More to the point how does someone who can't speak English get a DL, do they give tests in non official languages (I think I just realized that this is likely a rhetorical question - of course they do, if you pay, you don't even have to take the test in Richmond (that comment based on previous factual findings, no racist))

You raised your voice to your grandfather? You're a turd

Two sides to every story. Hard to believe they didn't help him. If he cant speak English how do you know he could even ask for help? Most likely he tried to walk on and was stopped and said some shit in Chinese like "I didn't know how" or something and no one could understand shit. So bam. Ticket.
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kind of off topic but they mentioned on the news how fare evasion tickets are more expensive than other offenses. Driving with a cell phone is just a few bucks cheaper than fare evasion lol.

lynda steele, steele on your side, consumer, translink, fines | CTV British Columbia News

Best thing to do is just call Translink and explain the situation nicely and hope for the best. Your grandpa is wrong for entering a fare paid zone without a valid ticket.

Unlucky situation.
Your grandpa goes looking for help... If "help" wasn't even there in the first place, he wouldn't have received a ticket. :derp:
Don't bitch out at your grandpa, shit happens.

Police/transit attendants that are checking for fares purposely "hide" at the top of the stairs so that they can blindside fare evaders.

Fact that your grandpa spotted them in advance to walk up to them to ask for help sounds fishy.

Unless he means he was wandering around trying to find help and stumbled upon them.

It sucks, because it shouldn't have been like this, yet the police are just doing their job.

As a visitor, you shouldn't need to know the language to go out, but at the same time, it's inevitable if you misunderstand the law because you don't know the language.

I'm sure if your grandpa waited around long enough, someone else would have used the fare machine, so he could have figured it out. There's also arrows on the fare indicating which direction to insert it in.

Good luck on your situation. I've personally had a good experience with them before, when I honestly forgot to get a July month pass. And I got caught about 10 days into July. (I've even been using the June pass on the bus daily prior to that, and bus driver never said anything). The translink officer gave me a warning.

evasion of fair is technically fraud. Would you rather be charged criminally or pay a fine? it's really no different than getting in a taxi and not paying

Doesn't it make you feel so safe on the road? :badpokerface:

I guess that's true, but it feels like the fine shouldn't be so high :okay:. That's just my opinion. I always pay the fares, learned the lesson when I got caught in 4th grade because I had no cash... the cop gave me a warning lol.

The reason it is high is to deter people from riding without paying.

There are only four different ways you can insert the ticket...
Commander Spock would have inserted it on the first go, it's only logical.

Seriously though, i'm glad the fare validation system is so "complex", it allows the average person (children and seniors exempt) to actually exercise that brain logically for a change.

I wrote a dispute letter to Translink, asking them to check the security recordings and see if he really tried fare evasion.
They should be able to see if he even tried to validate his ticket or went straight up to train.
Also, he went up the both platforms, searching for translink employee, so he went to lengths to get his ticket validated.
If they can see that on the security video, surely they would understand and cancel the ticket right?


So, today he received letter from Translink saying too bad so sad, sol...
In the letter, they are saying "Although I can empathize with the circumstances", rules are rules. He shouldn't have entered fare paid zone regardless of any reasons, blar blar blar :seriously:

I think he will end up paying for the ticket, even though he's not a PR here...

you weren't there, so you can't say for sure what your gramps told you is 100% fact. if I were you, I would believe my own relative over a joe blow cop... but you, yourself have no idea what actually happened.

as shitty as this is, due to your circumstances, i think it may be easier to simply just pay the ticket and get this over with. the time invested and the hassle just doesn't seem worth it. just swallow your pride.

Fun facts: A Translink cop pulls in a minimum of $80K annually.

A Skytrain attendant makes $60K.

By comparison, a CBSA officer, who is responsible for keeping terrorists, foreign diseases, sexual predators and counterfeit goods out of Canada, makes as much as a Skytrain attendant, who can't even seem to keep a bicycle off a train during prohibited hours.

For some odd reason, all we ever hear out of Translink are the financial difficulties they face. With wages like that, it's no wonder.

Sorry to hear about your grandfather's situation.

cool story.