Mostly of late owing to issues about fare collection, or more to the point the lack of such.
Over the weekend NDP opposition leader Adrian Dix was facing the prospect of much in the way of questioning and raised eyebrows over his apparent moment of fare evasion, having according to Mr. Dix himself misplaced his SkyTrain pass before heading out to ride the urban rails.
As things turned out for Dix, fate intervened in the political hay machine.
First off, as they seem to be able to do of late, the Liberals and their leader provided a handy deflection for the NDP leader, what with the defection of John van Dongen, who propelled the Liberals and their leader off to the top of the news cycle, leaving Dix free and clear to ride as he wishes, paid or not it seems.
Even if he does feel the urge to buy a day pass however, he may wish to join the seemingly growing numbers of those that ride Translink for free, as CKNW discovered this week, just because the Translink police give you a fare evasion ticket (173 dollars should you be inclined) there's no actual need it seems for you to pay for it.
According to the Chairman of Translink, once the Transit Police write up that ticket it's up to the province to pursue the payment, something which it seems the Province of BC hasn't been particularly good at, much to the surprise of Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom, who now of course vows for more vigilance and enforcement.
The Translink Follies arrived after the Premier herself mis-spoke on a funding issue for the transportation agency, another mis-step along the learning curve it seems of running the government.
Still, one thing you would think the Liberals would be able to get a handle on would be the collection of the money they at least anticipate receiving.
By letting as much money slip out of the treasury, as seems gone from past fare evasion cases (some 7.7 million in one year), it seems to make the Premier's claims that Translink can't manage its money a little rich.
Translink might like to point towards the government itself, where it seems the left hand doesn't quite know what the right hand is doing from time to time.
Nor it seems, which hand is holding the cash at the end of the day.
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