TTC Ticket Kiosk at Pearson

From member Orion 7029 on the CPTDB:

The TTC is trialing a TTC ticket kiosk at the airport begining today. Tickets purchased with coins, credit cards, and debit cards (note: no change will be given) will be sold for use on the TTC service there.

Orion 7029 said:

A ticket will be dispensed (left side a ticket, right side a receipt), and the customer is to then deposit the ticket into the farebox on the bus. Only tickets of varying denominations (Adult, Senior/Student, Child) can be purchased (unfortunately, Day Passes will not be available).

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See full thread here: Ticket Kiosk at Pearson

Well I suppose it's a good beginning, but why are they selling unique tickets which can only be used at the airport? Why not just sell normal tickets, or better yet tokens, along with day passes? And why not also sell Miss. Transit and Brampton Transit tickets?

It takes the TTC a long time to get around to doing anything the least bit innovative (not that I really call this innovative), and when they do, they do it in a half-assed way. You have to shake your head sometimes, at their thinking.

This is just retarded, and a complete waste of money. Why not just install a regular TTC token machine at the airport, or sell day passes, tickets, and tokens from the Airport Info counters. That would cost nothing. This is just another example of how TTC wastes money on dumb ideas. How about putting up good and visible signs on how to get to a TTC bus-stop from Pearson. Or provide a fast service to not just Kipling station but say Eglinton West Station, or Scarborough Centre.

Wow

Everyone complain so much. Why not they do nothing like before leave it as it is than theres nothing to complain about. Why would the TTC sell tickets to other transit agencies. If brampton and sauga wants to sell tickets at the airport let them do so. Its a beta test, if you can come up with better ideas than submit it, if you have no use for it than move on.

I work out of the airport, if you really want tokens, you can go to the money exchange place(s) on ground level or I believe it's the departures level and they sell you token there.

Currently listed at tripadvisor:

You can buy TTC tokens ($2.50 each, for five or ten tokens) or day passes ($10.00; for 1 person Mon-Fri, or a whole family on weekends & holidays) from the Currency Exchange booths inside either airport terminal. Otherwise, you'll have to pay cash when you board (and drivers don't make change!).

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g...io:Getting.Downtown.From.Pearson.Airport.html

Thanks, yyzfa and Ed - that's good to know. I've been traveling to and from Pearson for years and didn't know that. They should post that information more visibly at the airport and at the bus stop there.

The benefit is see from the kiosk is that one doesn't need to visit the currency exchange or carry Canadian currency with them since they can use a credit card. I should correct my above posts as the payment options available are exact change or credit card only (no debit card). I'll probably check this out Friday since I have nothing to do that day.

I went to check out the ticket machines at Pearson late last month. It was pretty easy to use when you follow the instructions posted. See the photos below for reference. What one does is select their language (I cannot recall what languages are available) with the grey button, then their fare category (Adult, Student, Child, and Senior) by pressing the yellow button until the desired fare is displayed, then press the blue button to pay with coins or credit card, the press the green button to print the ticket. Personally, I think the screen could be brighter to be more legible, and use up or down buttons to select things like language and fare category instead of pressing one button multiple times. The machines should probably be beside the bus stop for greater recognition instead of being inside the building against the wall across from the entrance.

The ticket is a thin two-piece ticket and receipt in one. As you can see, both sides look very similar. I assumed you tear along the perforation and deposit the ticket into the farebox and keep the receipt. I don't recall any explicit instructions on how to use the ticket. I think the ticket could be made a bit more durable, though it is something that will be used imediately. I also think, the receipt and ticket should look a lot less similar than they are currently and perhaps be already separated from each other.

Overall, not bad of a system.

Photos:
Ticket machine area.
Clos-up of ticket machine.
Front of ticket.
Back of ticket.

Did they put any at Terminal 3? I boarded there last month, and looked, but did not see any; though I was running for a bus. Fortunately, I had tokens and child tickets already with me.

It's been speculated that this machine is a prototype for how an off-vehicle POP system would be introduced on the streetcar routes once the Flexities arrive. Certainly would explain why there's a solar panel on the top of a unit that's installed indoors.

nfitz said:

Did they put any at Terminal 3? I boarded there last month, and looked, but did not see any; though I was running for a bus. Fortunately, I had tokens and child tickets already with me.

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I couldn't find any at Terminal 3 either. I also just did a quick look around, though.

Platform 27 said:

It's been speculated that this machine is a prototype for how an off-vehicle POP system would be introduced on the streetcar routes once the Flexities arrive. Certainly would explain why there's a solar panel on the top of a unit that's installed indoors.

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That's an interesting idea. It would obviously need a lot of reworking for use in a POP system.

Nice looking machine (perhaps the best-looking TTC gadget I've ever seen). I hope the TTC does look into applying this technology in the rest of the city, but considering that TTC often works at a snail's pace rolling out technology (or leaves technology at a trial stage and never goes through with a full rollout), I'm pessimistic about seeing these things on every street corner.

The TTC needs to come up with a better fare system. They need a fare mechanism which can be both proof-of-purchase and used in turnstiles. Tokens can't be used as proof-of-purchase because if they are still in your hand they haven't been used, and paper that isn't machine readable and coded can't be used in turnstiles. The solution is both Presto type fare cards for frequent users and machine readable paper card sized tickets purchased through vending machines for the casual user that will not use a thick plastic card like Presto enough to be worthwhile. The technology is already out there in use but the TTC always seems to want to reinvent things.

One really simple thing for them to do is STOP replacing the old ticket vending machines with metropass-only machines. They did this at Bathurst station, so now you have to line up to get tickets from the lone ticket person.

FFS, just deploy Presto and work with banks and businesses in the Greater Golden Horseshoe to get them to accept it for day-to-day payments like Octopus and Oyster.

@#$!