The cost to put new electronic fare technology on Greater Victoria's public buses would outweigh financial losses from transfer fraud, according to B.C. Transit officials, who have decided not to pursue the system.
The purchase and installation of 263 TRiM units, which read magnetic stripe transfers with encoded trip times, on the conventional fleet would cost $6,500 each or $1.7 million.
The technology, tested on Whistler buses in 2008-2009 and removed in 2010, would cost the Victoria Regional Transit Commission $650,000 in annual maintenance, plus $900,000 a year in capital and operating costs.
B.C. Transit lost $200,000 last year from transfer fraud.
