Free parking will end at TransLink park-and-ride lots as the authority moves to pull in more cash.
Most lots already charged, but the shift to all pay parking will come as a shock to motorists who use the 10 free lots, such as the South Surrey park-and-ride.
Other free park-and-rides include lots in Ladner and Tsawwassen in Delta; Walnut Grove in Langley; Sexsmith in Richmond; Phibbs exchange, Park Royal mall, Westmount and Gleneagles on the North Shore.
It may also mean users of the new 650-space Carvolth park-and-ride in Langley will also have to shell out to park there to take the new Highway 1 Rapid Bus.
Provincial government officials said just last week there was no plan to charge motorists there but added it would be TransLink’s decision after Victoria hands over the nearly finished park-and-ride.
A minimum of $2 a day will be charged, according to TransLink’s new draft 2013 plan, which was unveiled Monday.
“Prices will vary depending on the local markets,” TransLink vice-president Bob Paddon said Monday. “It will bring us much needed revenues.”
TransLink projects it will raise $2.2 million by charging at the free lots and raising the prices at some of the pay lots.
The South Surrey park-and-ride is already heavily overcrowded, which led TransLink this year to start towing incorrectly parked vehicles.
Paddon said imposing pay parking should give motorists much better odds of finding a space at crowded lots in the future.
The hope is that more drivers who use park and rides will simply leave their cars at home and catch feeder buses nearby to avoid the parking fees.
TransLink plans to develop more park and rides in the future, including ones to serve the Evergreen Line in Port Moody and Coquitlam.
About 3,500 of the 4,300 park-and-ride spaces TransLink controls are already pay parking.
Update: Park Royal Mall is not a TransLink-run park-and-ride and the mall says it will continue to let North Shore transit users park there free of charge.
