Metrolinx: Presto Fare Card

[11th]

I'm surprised to notice in the December 19, 2012 TTC minutes that the TTC are reviewing the use of Presto on the Toronto Island ferries. I'm surprised there was no report about this at the time. Looks like one of the new TTC councillors actually made a sensible suggestion!

Commissioner Heisey moved the following motion.

That staff be directed to review with the City of Toronto and Metrolinx the possibility of extending the use of the Presto card to an integrated Toronto Island Ferry fare system based on the TTC fare system (i.e. one Island Adult Ferry ticket equals two TTC single Adult TTC fares), to support the Island Ferry system, and as a potential cost saving initiative for the City of Toronto, and to report back on the results of that review.

The motion by Commissioner Heisey carried.​

Great idea! I'd be much more likely to jump on a ferry on a whim, if I didn't have to worry about buying a ticket at the dock.

Does the simply mean the ferry is going to cost $6 per return trip?

 

[nfitz]

Does the simply mean the ferry is going to cost $6 per return trip?

I don't think there's any indication of what pricing would be. Current fare is $7 return, $6.30 for a 10-trip. Current TTC single-trip Presto fare is $2.65. They could set pretty much anything they want price-wise. I'd assume the Presto fare would be $6.30 ... but I doubt anyone has even thought about that yet; That would be the easy part!

 

[ShonTron]

Great idea. I don't bother with the Centre Island ferry outbound (especially as I usually go with a bike, which are banned from summer weekend Centre Island runs). There's usually no delays to get on a Ward's or Hanlan's ferry, apart from the ticket queue, and while there's those machines that take credit cards now, they're as slow as the parking machines for accepting cards. Presto would at least be instant payment.

 

[Electrify]

Looks like Presto has screwed up for me again...

Yesterday I tapped on at York University and it brought my balance down to $24.67, just as expected. About an hour later when I got to Bernard Terminal, a connecting bus was there so I decided to take it, as it cuts a few minutes from my trip. When I tapped on, I thought I saw it say "1HR 59MIN," or what it says when you first tap for your trip. Did I forget to tap at York? I don't think so, I can remember tapping as I ran for the bus. Perhaps I misread it?

Well, it has been about 27 hours now, and I log into my Presto account, and I see that my balance is now $21.67. What's nicer is that despite more than 24 hours since I was on transit, my second charge isn't listed. It just shows my last tap at York University, with it listing my balance at $24.67. Quite odd since even when I tap to just check my balance, it shows up in my records.

Not sure if I should call Presto first, or YRT. Will probably try the former, though I will just select lost or stolen card from the selection menu, as their phone system is absolutely horrible. Am already predicting being put through the runaround between the two companies, will probably just end up saying to hell with it and grabbing a free Viva ride instead lol.

 

[nfitz]

Well, it has been about 27 hours now, and I log into my Presto account, and I see that my balance is now $21.67. What's nicer is that despite more than 24 hours since I was on transit, my second charge isn't listed. It just shows my last tap at York University, with it listing my balance at $24.67. Quite odd since even when I tap to just check my balance, it shows up in my records.

Give it a few days for all the stuff to show up in your account. That will make the discussion easier. And who knows, perhaps it will automagically fix it, when all the data is uploaded (probably not ...)

 

[bleu]

Once TTC says ‘Presto,’ charging riders less at off-peak times could reduce congestion, say some observers.
http://www.thestar.com/news/ttc/2013/02/06/should_rush_hour_commuters_pay_more_to_take_the_ttc.html

Charging more for peak and lower price for off rush hour is a common practice in many countries. Makes a lot of sense to me. The Yonge line for example is only crowded during a few hours and for the rest of the day, it is usually half or 75% empty. Charging a lower price might encourage transit during this time and increase ttc's revenue.

 

[Electrify]

Give it a few days for all the stuff to show up in your account. That will make the discussion easier. And who knows, perhaps it will automagically fix it, when all the data is uploaded (probably not ...)

Showed up this morning. It registered my tap at Green Lane in Newmarket, less than an hour after I tapped at York...

 

[Woodbridge_Heights]

Once TTC says ‘Presto,’ charging riders less at off-peak times could reduce congestion, say some observers.
http://www.thestar.com/news/ttc/2013/02/06/should_rush_hour_commuters_pay_more_to_take_the_ttc.html

Charging more for peak and lower price for off rush hour is a common practice in many countries. Makes a lot of sense to me. The Yonge line for example is only crowded during a few hours and for the rest of the day, it is usually half or 75% empty. Charging a lower price might encourage transit during this time and increase ttc's revenue.

I am shocked that they haven't installed presto readers at the ttc's commuter parking lots. Seems to make a lot of sense to me for someone to swipe their card to park and board the system rather than search for change for the parking gate

 

[Electrify]

Once TTC says ‘Presto,’ charging riders less at off-peak times could reduce congestion, say some observers.
http://www.thestar.com/news/ttc/2013/02/06/should_rush_hour_commuters_pay_more_to_take_the_ttc.html

Charging more for peak and lower price for off rush hour is a common practice in many countries. Makes a lot of sense to me. The Yonge line for example is only crowded during a few hours and for the rest of the day, it is usually half or 75% empty. Charging a lower price might encourage transit during this time and increase ttc's revenue.

I'm sure this report has been discussed numerous times in numerous threads, but unfortunately I wasn't following this forum when it was hot, so I'm going to comment on it here.

The report this article was based on I felt was written from a shakedown perspective, rather than one to promote transit growth and infrastructure. People going longer distances? Freeloaders, let's charge them more! Times when transit is in higher demand? Time to capitalize, let's charge them more!

The tone I got from it completely ignored the fact that transit users pay the highest share of their transit costs than anywhere else on the continent. On top of this, mass transit is a public service, so profit should not be the driving motive behind fare structures. If some lines happen to operate in the black, that's great. But if profitability is the driving factor behind transit planning, then perhaps we should consider allowing independent service providers in to compete with the government transit service, instead of giving the government its own money making monopoly in mass transit.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't look to increasing the costs to ride transit to help sustain and improve it, but we shouldn't be looking to exploit the situation either. For example, Toronto would be best to look at how York Region handles longer transit trips. While we have zoned fairs (including buffer zones), we also have two hour transfers to further encourage local trips. Another idea could be to charge a premium for rapid transit services, as we already do for express bus routes.

One idea which comes to mind is that local bus routes would cost $2.60 with Presto, and if you transfer on to the subway, Transit City light rail, Rocket BRT, or downtown express route your fare is increased to $2.65 - or essentially be charged an extra nickel when you tap. Meanwhile, all taps include 2 hours of unlimited usage* (local taps provide only local usage, rapid taps and upgrades include local and high speed services).

 

[nfitz]

Showed up this morning. It registered my tap at Green Lane in Newmarket, less than an hour after I tapped at York...

And is the balance $21.67 instead of $24.67? If so I'd start by calling them. I haven't dealt with YRT before, but might make sense to start with them at 1-866-668-3978, as it's all YRT stuff (I assume they were both YRT buses ...). And then Presto, if they can't solve it.

I am shocked that they haven't installed presto readers at the ttc's commuter parking lots. Seems to make a lot of sense to me for someone to swipe their card to park and board the system rather than search for change for the parking gate

TTC hasn't installed Presto anywhere yet ... all there is are the interim installations Metrolinx did at 12 TTC subway stations.

Though I don't think there are any plans to put Presto in the lots. Presumably they'll be wanting to focus on what's absolutely required until it's all running on TTC in 2015/2016 ... though the TTC board did vote recently to look at putting Presto at the ferry terminal ... so it might be worth pushing the board to look at this.

 

[Electrify]

Sorry for not getting back sooner, been enjoying my reading week too much...

Anyways, I called them up and apparently the driver forgot to change the reader on the bus to Zone 1. They are not GPS equipped like on the GO buses. Apparently if you pay for 1 zone, go into another zone, and then transfer on to another bus in the other zone you are docked an extra fare, even if you are within your 2 hour window.

While it may be a method to stop fare evaders, I'm surprised that it doesn't just charge you for the extra fare. What if you take the bus somewhere, get a ride from that location to a destination in another zone, and then catch a bus there? If it is within 2 hours, you will be charged an extra fare with Presto, while with tickets you presumably would be able to ask the driver for a zone upgrade. That said, if you asked the driver for a zone upgrade when tapping, I don't know if you would be charged for a full new fare, or just the upgrade.

Hope that wasn't too confusing for everyone.

Anyways, they mailed me a YRT ticket to make up for the extra fare I was docked.

 

[Jonny5]

There is a major PRESTO system upgrade next weekend.

You will no longer need to see a Customer Service Rep to clear an overdraft.

Also the infamous 7-day window for registrations and loading balances has been extended to 30 days.

The website will be changed to a username/password setup to login.

Details are on the PRESTO site.

 

[nfitz]

Details are on the PRESTO site.

At https://www.prestocard.ca/en/StaticContent/Migration/

A couple of other changes.

- You can now associate up to 10 cards with the same account, making it easier to manage cards for the whole family.
- You can now set a child, student or senior fare class on an unregistered card.

Now that will make my life easier. My understanding was to get a child's card, first I had to get the card, register it online, and then come back the next day after tapping somewhere (or perhaps tapping somewhere the next day, and coming back the day AFTER that), before being able to change it to a child's card.

I recently set up an extra card as a spare for guests, etc. One change I noticed during the process, is that the way the Autoload works has been improved. Previously, if you got a new card with a $10 balance, and then set your reload amount to $20 (the minimum), you'd never trigger the reload because it only reloaded when the balanced dropped below the trigger, because you set the trigger above the current balance. However I noticed that when I first used it with the $10 balance, after setting up the reload, that it did do the reload, despite being below the $20 trigger.

 

[nfitz]

The website seems to have come through the upgrade on the weekend relatively painlessly. I'd assume from the lack of complaints all is going well.

I had no problem yesterday merging the three cards I had into a single account, and all the transaction/reload information seems to have survived. Things seemed to go smoothly on the weekend, with 2 of my 3 cards doing an autoreload when they were used. The current balance isn't showing correctly on the website, but the transactions are all showing correctly with the correct balance, so I assume that will sort itself out with time.

 

[doady]

I have to choose a nickname for my card??? WTF?

What amI suppsoed to name it? Like "Bob" or something?