SkyTrain's $64,000 a day problem

TransLink has launched an advertising campaign to persuade SkyTrain riders to pay up during the strike.

TransLink admits paid fares are down 80 per cent, and the system is losing about $64,000 a day.

Many riders are boycotting the fare boxes, because the employees who police the fares went out on strike more than a month ago.

Overall, TransLink has saved millions of dollars since the start of the transit strike. However, spokesperson Ken Hardie is still appealing to SkyTrain riders to pay their fares.

Hardie notes TransLink also has to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair vandalism as a result of the transit strike.

Both sides in the SkyTrain strike are expected to return to the bargaining table next Wednesday, by which time SkyTrain will have lost another half a million dollars.