Metrolinx: Presto Fare Card

[littlewill1166]

Presto is trialing Contactless Credit Card Payments on GO Transit starting April 4. If you want to try it out, you may be able register your card(s) in the Bay Concourse at a booth near the ticket counters (UP was open to the public last year, but unadvertised).

March 28/April 1 1PM-4PM

 

[innsertnamehere]

"as early as the end of this year"

LOL turning what is actually an extremely late feature which was promised, what, a decade ago? into a "Coming sooner than expected" statement!

 

[W. K. Lis]

Still see people using "cash" to pay their fare on the TTC. Mostly seem to be immigrants, elderly, or mobility challenged. I'm 70 myself, but use the PRESTO card (waiting to pay my fare using my iPhone). Think the problem is having only "select" chain store corporations (IE. Shoppers Drug Mart) sell the PRESTO card, not the neighbourhood mom-n-pop store, because they are "perfect" in every way and can do wrong. They should be able to sell them at community centres and places of worship.

 

[Richard White]

Still see people using "cash" to pay their fare on the TTC. Mostly seem to be immigrants, elderly, or mobility challenged. I'm 70 myself, but use the PRESTO card (waiting to pay my fare using my iPhone). Think the problem is having only "select" chain store corporations (IE. Shoppers Drug Mart) sell the PRESTO card, not the neighbourhood mom-n-pop store, because they are "perfect" in every way and can do wrong. They should be able to sell them at community centres and places of worship.

My Grandmother is 86 and prefers to load her card at Shoppers Drug Mart which is close to her house. Community Centres and Places of Worship are not always practical for a whole host of reasons.

 

[max]

They should be able to sell them at community centres and places of worship.

Money changers at the temple...I seem to remember it causing a kerfuffle at some point

 

[LNahid2000]

Presto is trialing Contactless Credit Card Payments on GO Transit starting April 4. If you want to try it out, you may be able register your card(s) in the Bay Concourse at a booth near the ticket counters (UP was open to the public last year, but unadvertised).

March 28/April 1 1PM-4PM

So odd that you need to register your card in person for something like this.

 

[Richard White]

Money changers at the temple...I seem to remember it causing a kerfuffle at some point

I can see it being an issue in Synagogues especially where it relates to Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Other denominations may not want to process these transactions simply due to cost. I can see many smaller churches be it Catholic, Christian, Seventh Day Advent or ethnic specific (Churches devoted to certain sectors of the community like Latin America, Caribbean, European) not having enough parishioners to make it viable.

 

[trtcttc]

Presto is trialing Contactless Credit Card Payments on GO Transit starting April 4. If you want to try it out, you may be able register your card(s) in the Bay Concourse at a booth near the ticket counters (UP was open to the public last year, but unadvertised).

March 28/April 1 1PM-4PM

Is this to register your credit card, and if so how is the registration, do you just tap it against a device? I can't imagine letting someone copy down my cc details... the UP Express one was advertised online and on contactless.prestocard.ca and worked with any credit card, no registration required (although you'd need to register after the fact on the website or app to see transaction history).

 

[littlewill1166]

Still see people using "cash" to pay their fare on the TTC. Mostly seem to be immigrants, elderly, or mobility challenged. I'm 70 myself, but use the PRESTO card (waiting to pay my fare using my iPhone). Think the problem is having only "select" chain store corporations (IE. Shoppers Drug Mart) sell the PRESTO card, not the neighbourhood mom-n-pop store, because they are "perfect" in every way and can do wrong. They should be able to sell them at community centres and places of worship.

From a software standpoint, PRESTO already has the ability to let people redeem vouchers, just like how you would redeem an amazon gift card, and load money/passes to your account/card. It's up to organizations to talk to presto to work out an arrangement.

Is this to register your credit card, and if so how is the registration, do you just tap it against a device? I can't imagine letting someone copy down my cc details... the UP Express one was advertised online and on contactless.prestocard.ca and worked with any credit card, no registration required (although you'd need to register after the fact on the website or app to see transaction history).

You tap your card/mobile wallet on a device. You had to register in person for the UP closed trial, there was a closed trial before the open one. The closed one you had to register for. This GO Trial is a closed trial for Metrolinx Friends, Family, and Affiliates. This is where the booth is.

If you register with Google Pay, it shows up in your transaction history like this:

So odd that you need to register your card in person for something like this.

They don't want a bunch of people drowning the call center if something goes wrong, so it's in-person to make the pool of people smaller.

 

[trtcttc]

Not sure if it was just the guy manning the station, but tried signing up on Friday and he asked me where I worked and told me it’s only open to “participating organizations”. He mentioned some benefits, so I‘m assuming it’s for testing contactless for companies that subsidize employee’s transit costs.

 

[cplchanb]

Not sure if it was just the guy manning the station, but tried signing up on Friday and he asked me where I worked and told me it’s only open to “participating organizations”. He mentioned some benefits, so I‘m assuming it’s for testing contactless for companies that subsidize employee’s transit costs.

Well it is a closed test so it won't be open to the general public.

 

[ErieHall]

I would like to see the PRESTO system expanded to be an Ontario-wide thing. It's adoption by Ottawa has already established a precedent for using the system outside of the GTHA.

Presently Transit Windsor has a painfully mediocre implementation of a "card" system, where you have to visit the main bus terminal to get a pass and even after that you can only reload it at a very small handful of locations around the city.

 

[Adjei]

I would like to see the PRESTO system expanded to be an Ontario-wide thing. It's adoption by Ottawa has already established a precedent for using the system outside of the GTHA.

Presently Transit Windsor has a painfully mediocre implementation of a "card" system, where you have to visit the main bus terminal to get a pass and even after that you can only reload it at a very small handful of locations around the city.

Netherlands has the same card for the whole country. We should try and get more transit systems to adopt it province wide.

 

[DSC]

Netherlands has the same card for the whole country. We should try and get more transit systems to adopt it province wide.

I think the problem is that Metrolinx is not easy to work with (ask the TTC) and charges too much for a somewhat inflexible and outdated product.

 

[nfitz]

We'll all be using the same card not only in Ontario, but throughout the world, one day.

It's called VISA or MasterCard.