Getting your Compass Card

Vancouver is one of the few cities in North America with an extensive public transit system that extends beyond the downtown core, and where public transit ridership is growing rapidly.

Vancouver has an excellent public transit system named Translink, which operates buses, trains (called the Skytrain, which is the world’s longest driverless train network), a commuter ferry line (Seabus) and a commuter rail line (West Coast Express). There are also accessible options for people with disabilities.

While using public transit, having a Compass Card makes travelling around most of the city much easier. It costs $6 (which is a refundable deposit) and can be bought at any skytrain station and various other locations. A ticket is cheaper when bought with a compass card.

There are three zones and the cost of the ticket depends on how many zones you traverse, but all bus journeys are considered single zone trips. Note that with buses, you only tap in when boarding. No tap is required when disembarking. There are special fares for the weekend and for public holidays, and the Translink website has more information on the fare pricing.

One tip that we would like to give here is that once you initiate a journey, you don’t have to pay for additional journeys for 90 minutes from the time the first journey was initiated. This means that if you go from Station A to Station B and do a reverse journey within a few minutes, the return trip basically becomes free. The only additional charge is if the total number of zones increases on the additional journeys.

We also recommend creating a profile at the Compass Card website. You can use this account to view your Compass Card usage, replace lost cards and set up an auto-refill facility.

Happy riding!

Disclaimer: We make our best efforts to ensure that the information presented is accurate, but we take no responsibility for guaranteeing the same. We are not an expert advisor and the information presented should take that into consideration. We may have affiliate or referral partner agreements with some or all of the products and services we recommend. We make our best efforts to ensure that the cost of the referral commission is not passed on to our members, but we cannot guarantee it.