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Metrolinx: Presto Fare Card

amnesiajune said:
Go Transit can offer these refunds because they rarely have delays within their control. The TTC has them a lot more often because of their aging signal system and the constant weekend closures.
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I checked my Presto activities and it seems that they did not deduct my TTC fares during the chaos yesterday morning...
 
hw621 said:
I checked my Presto activities and it seems that they did not deduct my TTC fares during the chaos yesterday morning.
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With Go Transit it's done with an online form that you fill out. Go Transit checks that there was actually a delay within their control and issues a credit to your Presto card if there was.
 
I got the discount :D
prestoactivity.PNG

Post Secondary Student by the way.

The other way didn't work yet though. Might have to do with the GO bus not reporting the tap yet.
 

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Brad Ross on the issue of limited-use Presto cards: "Spring is what I am told... once tokens/tickets phased out, the LUM will be available to agencies for clients."

https://twitter.com/bradTTC/status/950742034792378368

What I find a bit weird is that they don't do something like Washington DC, where you get a discount on your first card. They charge $5 if you want to replace a card and transfer the balance, but it's only $2 for a brand new card. Or alternatively go with a system like London or Vancouver where the full price ($8.50 and $6.00 respectively) is charged but visitors can get a refund of that fee and whatever balance they have if they return the card. Presto's approach isn't unprecedented (Montreal has an identical system) but it seems cumbersome to have two separate cards being issued. Why not just absorb the cost of issuing cards into what transit systems pay?
 
amnesiajune said:
Brad Ross on the issue of limited-use Presto cards: "Spring is what I am told... once tokens/tickets phased out, the LUM will be available to agencies for clients."

https://twitter.com/bradTTC/status/950742034792378368

What I find a bit weird is that they don't do something like Washington DC, where you get a discount on your first card. They charge $5 if you want to replace a card and transfer the balance, but it's only $2 for a brand new card. Or alternatively go with a system like London or Vancouver where the full price ($8.50 and $6.00 respectively) is charged but visitors can get a refund of that fee and whatever balance they have if they return the card. Presto's approach isn't unprecedented (Montreal has an identical system) but it seems cumbersome to have two separate cards being issued. Why not just absorb the cost of issuing cards into what transit systems pay?
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From the SmarTrip website they no longer offer these discounts in Washington and all cards seem to cost $2. Cards are replaced free if they malfunction but show no signs of damage. ("If your registered SmarTrip® card was lost, stolen, or damaged, then the remaining balance may be transferred from the old card to a new card for the cost of a new card. If it malfunctioned and showed no sign of damage, then Metro will also reimburse you for the cost of a replacement card.") See: https://www.wmata.com/fares/smartrip/
 
DSC said:
From the SmarTrip website they no longer offer these discounts in Washington and all cards seem to cost $2. Cards are replaced free if they malfunction but show no signs of damage. ("If your registered SmarTrip® card was lost, stolen, or damaged, then the remaining balance may be transferred from the old card to a new card for the cost of a new card. If it malfunctioned and showed no sign of damage, then Metro will also reimburse you for the cost of a replacement card.") See: https://www.wmata.com/fares/smartrip/
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Fair enough, but that's an irrelevant detail in my comment. The point is that they include part of the cost of issuing cards in the transaction fees that transit systems pay. And then there are cities like Boston that include the entire cost - the card itself is given out for free!
 
hw621 said:
It is beyond me that Presto still does not have an app to check and reload balances, let alone an NFC enabled app on smartphones that you can tap using the phone instead of a physical card...
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I don't get why people obsess over this. They have a really good mobile website. I was able to get to this page in 30 seconds: https://i.imgur.com/dQdxbcx.jpg

Not everything needs to be a standalone app.
 

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amnesiajune said:
I don't get why people obsess over this. They have a really good mobile website. I was able to get to this page in 30 seconds: https://i.imgur.com/dQdxbcx.jpg

Not everything needs to be a standalone app.
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Well...maybe it is ok to check and reload on the website, but being able to tap with your phone is a neat feature. I see people put the card in their phone case and, voila, home-made mobile pay (burst in laughs...tears..). Come on, it is 2018. The needs and the technology are out there.
 
amnesiajune said:
Fair enough, but that's an irrelevant detail in my comment. The point is that they include part of the cost of issuing cards in the transaction fees that transit systems pay. And then there are cities like Boston that include the entire cost - the card itself is given out for free!
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Not to prolong this but your comment was simply not correct and why do you think they 'include part of the cost of issuing cards in the transaction fees". In DC they have decided to sell cards for $2US, here Metrolinx charges $6CDN. Does DC lose $$ on the cards, does Metrolinx make a profit? I suspect so. DC seem to look on cards as, at best, break-even for them; at $6 Metrolinx ought to be making $$. Boston's MBTA Charlie card is issued free but it seems to be restricted to use on MBTA services; in both DC and GTA the card serves several separate systems so it is harder to decide that it's 'free' (or who pays for it.).
 
hw621 said:
Well...maybe it is ok to check and reload on the website, but being able to tap with your phone is a neat feature. I see people put the card in their phone case and, voila, home-made mobile pay (burst in laughs...tears..). Come on, it is 2018. The needs and the technology are out there.
Click to expand...

It's not actually out there. Tapping with your phone can't work on a system that has tap-off or POP, since dead battery = no proof or ability to tap off.
 
DSC said:
Not to prolong this but your comment was simply not correct and why do you think they 'include part of the cost of issuing cards in the transaction fees". In DC they have decided to sell cards for $2US, here Metrolinx charges $6CDN. Does DC lose $$ on the cards, does Metrolinx make a profit? I suspect so. DC seem to look on cards as, at best, break-even for them; at $6 Metrolinx ought to be making $$. Boston's MBTA Charlie card is issued free but it seems to be restricted to use on MBTA services; in both DC and GTA the card serves several separate systems so it is harder to decide that it's 'free' (or who pays for it.).
Click to expand...

It seems pretty straight-forward to me - you take the cost of the card and divide it among the expected average taps per card. If a card is expected to be used 1,200 times on average, charge the transit agencies an extra 0.5¢ per use to cover the $6.00 fee.

I'd expect that when when you include the cost of shipping, processing and overhead, the cost of a Presto card does work out to around $6.00. That's why other cities that don't subsidize their cards' cost have a similar fee ($6.00 in Montreal, $6.00 in Vancouver, $5.00 in Washington before the subsidy, $8.50 in London, etc.)
 
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