ansLink’s vision of a utopia of convenience and profit and Dr. Perl’s vision of a
tropolis-style assault on the poor are both highly speculative.

What isn’t speculative is that the Compass Card is coming very soon, and its
ccess or failure will have wide-ranging impacts on the further development of
blic transit in Metro Vancouver.

Success means a more effective system that responds to customer needs in
nore efficient, convenient manner. Failure, beyond short-term launch hiccups
ansLink acknowledges will probably happen, could turn people off riding public
nsportation ever again.

“There’s a huge amount of uncertainty, there’s a huge amount of risk to the
stem,” said Dr. Perl with a wry laugh. “I wouldn’t want to be a senior executive in
ansLink. This is the sort of thing that can cost people their careers if it falls apart.”