doady
Senior Member
The "cash only" policy is a legacy of a time when the only methods of fare payment were cash, tickets, and passes. Now there is Presto, and to maintain a cash-only policy on these routes is beyond dumb.
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accura407
Car is King
Surprised Nobody's Posted This Yet...
http://news.ontario.ca/mto/en/2011/08/presto-makes-commuting-easier-for-families-on-the-go.html
http://news.ontario.ca/mto/en/2011/08/presto-makes-commuting-easier-for-families-on-the-go.html
About time it gets onto GO buses. Now get it at TTC subway stations already! The buses I can understand, but seriously, it requires the retrofit of 1 (ONE!) turnstile at each subway station. It's not rocket science. I use Presto when I'm in Toronto, and it's a pain trying to figure out where I need to get on the subway based on what stations have a Presto reader and which ones don't. It reminds me of trying to get around on the subway when I was travelling with someone in a wheelchair. Until it's at every station, it's not really a viable alternative.
Komiksulo
Active Member
From the Georgina Advocate: Presto woes irk riders.
For the moment, I live near Sutton. I can walk out the door to the intersection and wave down the Beaverton GO bus to go through Sutton to Newmarket, and then onwards. However, there is nowhere near me to buy or refill a Presto card. There are precious few places to buy YRT paper tickets even. I drove to Newmarket early Saturday morning to go downtown, and I couldn't pay cash to refill my Presto card at the bus station there even. So I paid cash for a paper ticket to go to Union.
YRT and Presto need to make it easier to pay cash or debit to buy and refill their cards. How about putting Interac Online on the website so we can refill immediately?
For the moment, I live near Sutton. I can walk out the door to the intersection and wave down the Beaverton GO bus to go through Sutton to Newmarket, and then onwards. However, there is nowhere near me to buy or refill a Presto card. There are precious few places to buy YRT paper tickets even. I drove to Newmarket early Saturday morning to go downtown, and I couldn't pay cash to refill my Presto card at the bus station there even. So I paid cash for a paper ticket to go to Union.
YRT and Presto need to make it easier to pay cash or debit to buy and refill their cards. How about putting Interac Online on the website so we can refill immediately?
Electrify
Senior Member
For the record, you can reload your Presto card online with your chequing account. Though the best way to do it is auto-load on a credit card, by far.
Last week I put my Presto card through a bit of a torture test. I had to go to York University to buy my textbooks, then to York Central Hospital for a doctor's appointment, and on the way back a stop over near Richmond Heights Plaza for a late lunch. When I got to my Viva stop I decided to check my balance for the hell of it... which ended up freezing the reader. I let the driver know, and he said to tap when I get off. I got off at Richmond Hill Centre and tapped there and got on to my transfer.
Since I was running late, I decided to take the GO bus back to RHC. When I arrived, I tapped on the Viva machine and it deducted 50 cents and saw it as a 'ride to GO.' I then got on to a local bus as it came first and tapped and it looked to deduct $2.60. There was a supervisor on the bus and I asked her about this, and she said the first ride to GO is 50 cents, after that it is a full fare.
Today I checked my Presto record of my trip, and it handled it flawlessly. In fact, the second half of my trip was only 50 cents and it shows all extra transfers as free! Overall I'd say it passed my torture test with flying colours.
gweed123 said:
The TTC seems to find a way to turn the simplest and most obvious decisions into rocket science.
nfitz
Superstar
Hang on. The other transit agencies decided to implement Presto well over 5 years ago, and have only just started to roll it out. TTC decided to implement Presto a few weeks ago - and your complaining they haven't started rolling it out yet?
Still Waters
New Member
nfitz is right. It may not be rocket science, but it is also not as simple as just retrofitting a turnstile at each station. The back-of-house system is currently not set up to deal with any kind of volume from TTC use. Besides happy political announcements about everyone now being in agreement with Presto, no one has actually come up with the money needed to purchase and install the mini-computers at the turnstile(s), nor to expand the central computer functions to accept significantly more transactions.
Sometimes, yes. In this case, no.
Sometimes, yes. In this case, no.
rbt
Senior Member
Or upgrade the network within TTC stations. Due to asbestos this may cost a very large amount and is the reason why some stations don't have the video display screens or security cameras.
I'm not asking for a system-wide rollout, just at subway stations. The Presto machines are already at a dozen or so stations. I'm just asking for more stations. I understand that putting it on buses and streetcars is a whole different animal though.
nfitz
Superstar
I too would guess that we may see it first in the subway stations; and then perhaps in the new fare vending machines for the streetcar system. But I'd doubt we'd see anything until at least 2012. They haven't even released their plan yet, let alone tendered the work.
It's already at some subway stations (I know the terminus stations, as well as Union, Dundas, and I think Osgoode) have them. It would just be nice to gradually roll them out at more and more stations, like they did with the next train screens.
nfitz
Superstar
12 TTC stations have them. This was fully financed and constructed by Metrolinx. Very little to do with TTC.
If Metrolinx would like to pay and continue installing in all the TTC stations, that would be fine - but they are refusing to do this, and are passing the buck to TTC.
So instead of the TTC doing the logical thing and just saying "ok, we'll pay Metrolinx to get these in at all subway stations, since they've already been doing it. Meanwhile, we'll work on figuring out how to get them onto our buses and streetcars", we're going to sit here waiting for over a year so that the TTC can figure out how to reinvent the wheel and figure out how to implement Presto at subway stations.
nfitz
Superstar
Presumably TTC would have to sign a deal with Metrolinx first, which would include some kind of requirement of TTC back-room stuff.
Though TTC tendering the management of the installation of the machines at subway stations to Metrolinx seems like a great idea!
Why reinvent the wheel, right? Metrolinx obviously has the process down if they have Presto machines already working at TTC subway stations. It would be cheaper for the TTC to say "here's a cheque, you deal with the subway stations". That may also work for the buses and streetcars, because Metrolinx has obviously figured out how to do it efficiently on a number of different transit system's buses. The TTC would probably take a year figuring out the problems that Metrolinx has already spent a year figuring out, and have since resolved.