If you want to load up your Compass card but can't do it online or over the phone, London Drugs may be the only game in town.
The all-purpose transit pass, scheduled to be released later this year, will be complemented by vending machines in 18 London Drugs stores throughout Metro Vancouver, including Park Royal north in West Vancouver and Lonsdale Avenue in North Vancouver.
Transit users can buy and load their cards on the vending machines, which are tentatively slated to be up and running by April, 2014.
Pre-loaded cards will be sold at other retailers, but London Drugs made the best pitch to carry the vending machines, according to TransLink's vice-president of enterprise initiatives Mike Madill.
"No money was changing hands. They supply the space and the power and we supply the machine," Madill said.
While not an exclusive deal, Madill said TransLink would need to deliberate carefully before putting the vending machines in other stores. "We'd have to still think about it because these machines are expensive machines and we've only got a limited supply so we want to make sure that we're strategic in where they go," he said.
Madill could not say just how much the machines cost, but stressed their convenience.
"They'll provide an opportunity for customers who don't have credit cards or don't feel comfortable loading their products over the phone."
Customers can also buy and load their cards at transit stations.
Some transit users have objected to the Compass system because the new SkyTrain and SeaBus gates will not recognize bus tickets, leaving some users paying two fares where they used to pay one.
