Steve Munro noted that in a post-paper transfer world, a person making a three leg trip where the middle one involves an inoperative Presto vehicle may be charged for two trips, since the tap for the third leg would see the trip as new and not a transfer from the second.
Interesting thread, just reading some of the comments, relate to them all, but you raise a very good point. Here's what happens when one takes the initiative to *travel more directly* on GO.
It's been five months since this last happened, and every time I phone in a complaint on it, they correct it, and the spiel every time is (gist) "This shouldn't happen, we'll inform the Presto people to fix it":
I used to live in Guelph for five years, moved back to TO now, but to get to Mimico from Guelph, rather than transferring to the (21H?) bus at Square One from the 29 bus, I'd stay on the 29 to Cooksville station, tap off, and then tap on the Mi-Way express down to Port Credit,( extra 85c), tap-on on the GO train and get off at Mimico. Unless now fixed, I'd get charged *two fares* on GO, since the connection through on Mi-Way wasn't counted as such *even though it is vastly more direct* than going to Union on the 21 magical mystery tour (it goes all over the place) and taking a train back westward. I ended up just buying paper tickets on my Presto card to avoid the hassle of correcting them every time.
Using the system like that should be rewarded, not punished.
Same happened if I was returning to Guelph from Burlington. Hop on GO train to (Oakville?), took bus up to Milton GO, road my bike the two miles or so to Milton Park and Ride to get on the 29 to Guelph....and charged two fares! Always got it straightened out by being on the phone for over half an hour each time (almost always had to ask for a supervisor, the front line workers don't understand the situation) only to be apologized to and get a credit.
In all fairness, Presto has been a lot better for me lately, but some 'intelligent systems' are pretty dumb, (usually human problem of lack of algorithm acumen) especially when GO is touting doing exactly what I do: Take a more direct path, even if I pay a co-fare to do it. I get the awful feeling that further integration with the TTC is not going to go smoothly at all.