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Metrolinx: Presto Fare Card

Old fare gates are being removed right now at Sherbourne Station in preparation for the new ones!
At the main entrance? TTC has said the Glen Road entrance will be closed from tonight through Sunday for Presto work. I'm glad they are starting to work on the secondary entrances. It's tough to get through those with kids.
 
It clearly states the minimum 24 hour/maximum 30 day window online. This is very clearly spelt out on their site, when reloading, and in the confirmation e-mail.

Also, if you reload in person with a GO ticket attendant it's instant. If you use a self-serve reload kiosk it's instant. If you use autoload it's instant.

If you reload online and simply read the instructions, and manage to somehow plan your life 24 hours in advance, there's no issue.

I can't believe people are still complaining about the 24 hour delay. There are 2 ways to do it instantly in person, plus autoload, and as an adult one should really be able to read a webpage and plan one's life 24 hours ahead. "What a lousy system"? Grow up.

If you recall the story I mentioned a while back (need to post here more often), on the bus ride back home I checked my account from my phone. The TTC taps showed up on the page, but my Viva ones did not, despite the fact that the latter ones were stationary machines. I think it also has a bit to do with the generation of machine, the newer ones the TTC uses with colour LCD displays seem to upload more rapidly than older ones with monochrome LCD displays, even if the latter tend to be hardwired.

Honestly, there is little reason I can figure out as to why stationary terminals don't update instantly, or at least very rapidly. By the late 00s which is their vintage, the technology was readily available for this to happen.
 
Oh wow...I did not know they had portable readers
They look like a smart phone and have seen them.

They are being test at 6 TTC location for reloading the cards with them
 
what about those under 12?
They can just walk through the collectors window at Main Street at the moment. There's a huge gap between turnstile and the first Presto gate, so it will be easier to walk past when everyone is paying.

Though personally, I just carry the 3-year old through, and the 8-year old uses her Presto card, and get's charged $0:

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At the main entrance? TTC has said the Glen Road entrance will be closed from tonight through Sunday for Presto work. I'm glad they are starting to work on the secondary entrances. It's tough to get through those with kids.

Main entrance is what I noticed today. This was just after noon.
 
That's essentially what the fare inspectors use.

Yep. The older units that I believe GO and certainly OCTranspo use are the Handheld Nautiz X5, and the newer units that the TTC has are the Symbol/Motorola Solutions/Zebra TC 55. The TC55 runs Android, so theoretically they could use any capabe NFC android phone going forward, but the TC55 is an enterprise device.

http://www.handheldgroup.com/rugged-computer/handheld-pda/nautiz-x5/
https://www.zebra.com/us/en/products/mobile-computers/handheld/TC55/tc55-spec-sheet.html
 
That's essentially what the fare inspectors use.

When I was fare inspected a couple weeks ago, a few of us on the streetcar showed them our presto cards, and they just said "ok thanks" and proceeded. I don't think they had any readers with them.
 
When I was fare inspected a couple weeks ago, a few of us on the streetcar showed them our presto cards, and they just said "ok thanks" and proceeded. I don't think they had any readers with them.

The TTC fare inspectors are most certainly given smartphones that read presto fares. Some of them choose not to use it because apparently the units have technical issues (one of them told me this) and can take a very long time to set up and check a fare.

I've been inspected twice since POP came to the 509, one time the inspector did take out the phone and try to read my card but his device didn't work, the other time the inspector did check my fare properly.
 
When I was fare inspected a couple weeks ago, a few of us on the streetcar showed them our presto cards, and they just said "ok thanks" and proceeded. I don't think they had any readers with them.

pssst...don't tell the union...but most software similar to this allows management to monitor the number of scans per hour. Management will know how many scans inspectors will make, how may tickets they hand out and how many people are let go (both per shift and per hour). Just like any other task-based job this allows management to measure performance of the staff. And to give development plans for those that are not meeting expectations.

The other benefits (depending on the software build) include:
- the system there can feedback to tell an inspector if a Presto card has already received a warning in the past (and can force the inspector to give a ticket in certain circumstances)
- You can have software to track the success rates of inspectors on each line. This can mean that inspectors will be more frequent on lines with higher delinquency rates
 

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