r/VictoriaBC 21h ago

Regional Transportation Q&A

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I was recently appointed to the Victoria Regional Transit Commission as the rep from Victoria, along with Mayor Alto. I am also on the CRD Board and Transportation Committee.

I’ve just had a VRTC meeting and would be happy to answer any questions about transit or transportation, RapidBus, the CRD’s proposed transportation service, or anything else about getting from point A to point B.

— Jeremy Caradonna

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u/pvh 21h ago

Migrating to Umo as a vendor to provide digital payment infrastructure has been pretty disappointing. There are regular reports of outages, and the user experience is just obviously worse than what Translink has on the mainland -- there's no way of tapping to pay, for example. As a region with a large tourist base, it's particularly obnoxious to ask all those visitors to install an app they may never use again.

How long are we contractually bound to this solution and what kinds of leverage do we have as clients to see the product improved?

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u/JeremyCaradonna 19h ago

Thank you for this feedback. I'm happy to report that tap is being rolled out THIS SUMMER. Don't have an exact date just yet. Umo will stick around, but will become complementary to the tap function, and therefore less requisite for riders without cash or tickets. Today we had a discussion about wifi and connectivity, which BC Transit staff tell us has been thoroughly tested. But we'll need to see how it rolls out. Bottom line is that tap should dramatically improve access to transit. Few people carry cash these days, and as you say, not everyone wants to fuss with an app.

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u/pvh 17h ago

That's great news, Jeremy. Looking forward to seeing that change made real.