Travellers who take Vancouver's new Canada Line rapid-transit system to or from the airport after it opens in 2009 will have to pay an extra fee.

Transit officials plan to meet over the next few days to determine how much the extra fare will be, said Peter Lowe, spokesman for TransLink, the regional transit authority.

The Canada Line will link downtown Vancouver stations to the airport.
(CBC)

News of the higher fare came as a surprise to Joseph Berechman, a former professor of transportation studies at the Sauder School of Business in Vancouver.

Berechman doesn't remember any mention of an extra fee for airport service in the original plans for Canada Line, and believes there's another reason for the fare premium.

"The initial estimates of the number of people to use the system to go to the airport, in my opinion, were highly inflated," Berechman told CBC on Thursday morning.

"So now they realize they are short of funds, and short of funds to begin with. Somehow they have to cover it, and one way is simply by hiking the prices," said Berechman.

But Lowe said a more expensive ticket was always part of the plans for the new line.

Currently Translink charges $3.75 for a two zone fare from Vancouver to airport by bus.

The Canada Line is a $1.9-billion expansion of Vancouver's elevated rapid-transit system that will run between the Waterfront Centre on Burrard Inlet near downtown Vancouver to the Vancouver International Airport in Richmond.

It will have 16 stations, two bridges, and approximately 19 kilometres of tunnel.