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Metrolinx: Presto Fare Card

rbt said:
The early excuse is to ensure Spadina extension riders pay their premium. It's looking like York U will be included for southbound trips when transferring from a York Region bus and anything further south will pay the TTC fare.
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Given that York University GO station is being closed and replaced by Downsview Park GO station, I certainly hope that the 2-stop ride between Downsview Park TTC and York University TTC is priced near-zero as a GO co-fare, otherwise it's a huge slap in the face to a large number of York U students who currently take the train who would suddenly have to start paying for a TTC metropass in addition to their GO monthly fare...or TTC/GO need to allow the university to run a private shuttle bus for students from Downsview Park.
 
Megaton327 said:
Given that York University GO station is being closed and replaced by Downsview Park GO station, I certainly hope that the 2-stop ride between Downsview Park TTC and York University TTC is priced near-zero as a GO co-fare, otherwise it's a huge slap in the face to a large number of York U students who currently take the train who would suddenly have to start paying for a TTC metropass in addition to their GO monthly fare...or TTC/GO need to allow the university to run a private shuttle bus for students from Downsview Park.
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Didn't they find out, though, that there really are not a "large number" of York U students taking the GO train to school...isn't the reason a combination of station location and uni-directional nature of the service?

I think I read that, by far, the most common transit approach to York is TTC buses....so there is no negative effect on them with the subway opening....and then Viva/BT...who's customers will get hit with some sort of extra fare once the buses are kicked off campus.
 
Megaton327 said:
Edit: regarding the Gen 2 Presto thing, my understanding was that the TTC's main reason for wanting it was compatability with open payments, i.e. tapping a debit or credit card right on the same Presto reader to pay a fare. However, they had those machines at College and at Dundas for a few months as a pilot a couple of years ago, and they haven't been seen since. In fact, the LFLRV onboard and offboard ticket vending machines have debit/credit tap payment, so it seems doubtful that the TTC will go through the trouble of duplicating that feature on the Presto readers that are about 2 feet away onboard the car. And subway collectors are going to take tap debit/credit for single rides soon, then they're supposed to have SRVMs in the stations too once the collectors are gone...so at this point, what did they even gain by waiting for Gen 2?
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There's a huge difference between accepting credit/debit for single rides and accepting credit/debit through PRESTO. Lost of places that take credit/debit for single rides at vending machines are now looking at integrating it into their smart card systems, like London, England just did. The biggest benefit is that the capping and transfers are possible, so you don't need paper. It's also a huge time savings over waiting for the collector or vending machine, and the ability to batch process transactions reduces credit/debit fees. There won't ever be vending machines on buses, so this opens up credit/debt functionality there too. Finally, it allows most users to get rid of their PRESTO cards entirely and just use credit/debit, reducing the need for PRESTO to distribute and manage their own cards.
 
While I appreciate the information, the fact is that every remaining non-Presto station will get the new fare gates this year. Existing Presto stations will receive new fare gates once the entire system is Presto enabled.
 
hmm from the same site, it seems like Sherbourne and Wellesly should have the gates online any day now
 
Wellesley is almost the only station I carry tokens these days for.

It appears the new Presto gates don't even have token slots -- you have to walk by the collector booth to pay by token. Another small step in saying goodbye to the token. While the tokens worked great for years, I kept losing them (occasionally), it'll be great to finally say goodbye to tokens except as a Collector's item.
 
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mdrejhon said:
Wellesley is almost the only station I carry tokens these days for.

It appears the new Presto gates don't even have token slots -- you have to walk by the collector booth to pay by token. Another small step in saying goodbye to the token. While the tokens worked great for years, I kept losing them (occasionally), it'll be great to finally say goodbye to tokens except as a Collector's item.
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That's correct, the new faregates do not take tokens, period. A small number of them at each station (at Main, I believe it's the accessible gate plus one more) have a Metropass magnetic stripe reader instead of a Presto RFID reader.
 
This exciting progress also is vaguely, faintly accompanied by a nagging feeling/wonder of whether fare integration becomes an explosive 2018 issue. York TTC extension opens and a crack appears in the space-time fabric. Tapping out on the TTC, heavens!
 
I was on CLRV 4120 on 511 Bathurst today, and both Presto readers were lit up red saying "not in service". Couldn't pay my fare--my card did have a transfer from an earlier TTC tap, though. Just rode anyways--I made a good faith effort to pay my fare.

I'm blown away by how often I see Presto readers out of service on streetcars. Since Presto's deployment on all streetcars, having moved out of downtown, I use the TTC slightly less often than I do GO and YRT/Viva. In the last several years, I have seen Presto out of service on 0 YRT buses, 0 Vivastation readers, and 0 GO buses; and for that matter, when travelling, never on HSR, MiWay, or OCTranspo. I've seen 0 GO Train Presto readers or balance checkers out of service at any station other than Union; at Union I've seen maybe 3 or so individual readers with garbled text or seeming to be frozen with a light on, that were probably not usable, but the multiple other readers that are usually within visual range were always functioning.

However, I have now been on 2 or 3 CLRVs/ALRVs with all of the Presto readers out of service, and probably about a dozen streetcars (of all types, LFLRVs included) with one or two readers out of service but having other functioning. I'm not sure what's going on with the TTC's readers, but they seriously need to fix them.
 
Megaton327 said:
I was on CLRV 4120 on 511 Bathurst today, and both Presto readers were lit up red saying "not in service". Couldn't pay my fare--my card did have a transfer from an earlier TTC tap, though. Just rode anyways--I made a good faith effort to pay my fare.

I'm blown away by how often I see Presto readers out of service on streetcars. Since Presto's deployment on all streetcars, having moved out of downtown, I use the TTC slightly less often than I do GO and YRT/Viva. In the last several years, I have seen Presto out of service on 0 YRT buses, 0 Vivastation readers, and 0 GO buses; and for that matter, when travelling, never on HSR, MiWay, or OCTranspo. I've seen 0 GO Train Presto readers or balance checkers out of service at any station other than Union; at Union I've seen maybe 3 or so individual readers with garbled text or seeming to be frozen with a light on, that were probably not usable, but the multiple other readers that are usually within visual range were always functioning.

However, I have now been on 2 or 3 CLRVs/ALRVs with all of the Presto readers out of service, and probably about a dozen streetcars (of all types, LFLRVs included) with one or two readers out of service but having other functioning. I'm not sure what's going on with the TTC's readers, but they seriously need to fix them.
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I'm from Mississauga and I can tell you there have been a few instances where I've boarded a bus with an out of service reader. Luckily the driver always lets us on if we show the card (MiWay buses are front-door load only).
 
Megaton327 said:
I was on CLRV 4120 on 511 Bathurst today, and both Presto readers were lit up red saying "not in service". Couldn't pay my fare--my card did have a transfer from an earlier TTC tap, though. Just rode anyways--I made a good faith effort to pay my fare.

I'm blown away by how often I see Presto readers out of service on streetcars. Since Presto's deployment on all streetcars, having moved out of downtown, I use the TTC slightly less often than I do GO and YRT/Viva. In the last several years, I have seen Presto out of service on 0 YRT buses, 0 Vivastation readers, and 0 GO buses; and for that matter, when travelling, never on HSR, MiWay, or OCTranspo. I've seen 0 GO Train Presto readers or balance checkers out of service at any station other than Union; at Union I've seen maybe 3 or so individual readers with garbled text or seeming to be frozen with a light on, that were probably not usable, but the multiple other readers that are usually within visual range were always functioning.

However, I have now been on 2 or 3 CLRVs/ALRVs with all of the Presto readers out of service, and probably about a dozen streetcars (of all types, LFLRVs included) with one or two readers out of service but having other functioning. I'm not sure what's going on with the TTC's readers, but they seriously need to fix them.
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The bottom line is that Metrolinx isn't fixing them. Perhaps you keep seeing car 4120?

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I been on a bus recently with a broken fare box. It was on the 186. Free rides for everyone. It's not just presto.
 
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