As you may have heard already, we have released the three finalist names for our smart card, and we want you to decide on a winner starting Friday, January 14, 2011!

As you know, we’re working on a smart card project for launch in 2013, where you’ll load your transit fares onto a single card that you can use across the system, and track important trip and ridership data for better system planning.

The three shortlisted names are Starfish, Compass or TPass. So visit translink.ca/contest on Friday and weigh in on your favourites: the voting period will be open for two weeks after that, ending on Friday January 28, 2011.

The winning name will be announced at the end of March along with a brand identity for the new card. The contest winner will get an iPad and a smart card loaded with a year’s worth of transit, to be used on the system in 2013. (If more than one person submitted one of these names, we will do a draw from all of those people to get our winner. See the rules and regulations for more info.)

Here’s the press release we issued about the voting today: you can also check out articles from the Province and the Peace Arch News.

As well, here are the past blog posts on the smart card project, and the main TransLink page with more info about the project.