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Metrolinx: Presto Fare Card

a little observation from my test ride on the UPe yesterday.......all the station announcements contain a remider to Presto users to tap off at whatever station they are disembarking at....my guess is that they are anticipating the fare gap between a cash fare and the presto fare to entice cash users to switch presto and, therefore, a decent number of the people using Presto on this line will be novice presto users and, therefore, will need reminding to tap off. Compare this, for example, to GO station announcements which contain no such reminders.
 
TOareaFan said:
a little observation from my test ride on the UPe yesterday.......all the station announcements contain a remider to Presto users to tap off at whatever station they are disembarking at....my guess is that they are anticipating the fare gap between a cash fare and the presto fare to entice cash users to switch presto and, therefore, a decent number of the people using Presto on this line will be novice presto users and, therefore, will need reminding to tap off. Compare this, for example, to GO station announcements which contain no such reminders.
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What's odd, is that if you don't tap off, the penalty is to charge the full fare for the line. So for the vast majority of users, there is no penalty. They've overly-complicated things - the only ones that they should be asking to tap off, are those boarding at Union and Pearson and not travelling to the end of the line, or those boarding elsewhere and only travelling one stop.
 
nfitz said:
What's odd, is that if you don't tap off, the penalty is to charge the full fare for the line. So for the vast majority of users, there is no penalty. They've overly-complicated things - the only ones that they should be asking to tap off, are those boarding at Union and Pearson and not travelling to the end of the line, or those boarding elsewhere and only travelling one stop.
Click to expand...

you're right...but it comes across as them embarking on a bit of a "How to use your new Presto card" training mission via the station announcements.
 
TOareaFan said:
a little observation from my test ride on the UPe yesterday.......all the station announcements contain a remider to Presto users to tap off at whatever station they are disembarking at....my guess is that they are anticipating the fare gap between a cash fare and the presto fare to entice cash users to switch presto and, therefore, a decent number of the people using Presto on this line will be novice presto users and, therefore, will need reminding to tap off. Compare this, for example, to GO station announcements which contain no such reminders.
Click to expand...

My understanding was that most GO users have set a default trip and therefore don't have to tap off... and when I use GO I don't see many GO riders tapping off. A reminder wouldn't hurt.
 
doady said:
We can set a default trip? How? On the Presto website?
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At any GO Train station. For GO Train trips - I don't think you can for GO Bus trips.

The catch though - is if you take a trip other than your default, you have to use the Override button before you tap on, and then remember to tap off.

And if you change your mind during your trip, and decide to get off earlier or later - then you either overpay, or risk being fined in a fare inspection.

If you always take the same trip on GO ... then makes sense. But if you don't ... not worth the hassle of trying to remember.
 
I've always been surprised that they don't remind people to tap off. I ended up setting a default trip with my card just because I once forgot to tap off, and 99.9% of my trips are between Union and Richmond Hill, though it makes it more stressful to remember everything when I am not using my default stations. Also, what happens if you tap on at a station which is not your default and don't press the override button?
 
Electrify said:
Also, what happens if you tap on at a station which is not your default and don't press the override button?
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A good question. I think that it acts the same as pressing the override ... but do you need to tap off, if you get off at your default station. I'd try it.

Hmm ... though if you are taking Richmond Hill to Union and don't tap off, the penalty is to pay the full fare of the line. Which is what you've already paid - if my recollection is correct from the one I had (which mean I paid all the way to Hamilton ouch), the only difference is that you don't get the Presto discount ... so not a big charge.
 
nfitz said:
A good question. I think that it acts the same as pressing the override ... but do you need to tap off, if you get off at your default station. I'd try it.

Hmm ... though if you are taking Richmond Hill to Union and don't tap off, the penalty is to pay the full fare of the line. Which is what you've already paid - if my recollection is correct from the one I had (which mean I paid all the way to Hamilton ouch), the only difference is that you don't get the Presto discount ... so not a big charge.
Click to expand...

Yes, if I recall correctly, it does act as an override. After all, if you have a default set for Union to Richmond Hill and you tap on at, say, Langstaff instead...it's not complicated for the system to figure out something different should be happening there.

As for the penalty fare, you're correct that if you tap on at Richmond Hill, whether you tap off at Union or not you'd pay the same price. However, the other way this would not be true--at Union it doesn't know which line you're taking, it would have to assume the longest/most expensive trip...Kitchener, Hamilton, Allandale, even Niagara Falls potentially...much higher than to Richmond Hill. Funnily enough, on that note, the UP Express employees were admitting to Union-Pearson travellers that they didn't actually need to tap off as it would be $19 either way, and it would only make a difference if travelling to/from Bloor or Weston.
 
Megaton327 said:
As for the penalty fare, you're correct that if you tap on at Richmond Hill, whether you tap off at Union or not you'd pay the same price.
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I thought though you didn't get the "discount". So to Richmond Hill you'd pay the $6.75, rather than the usual Presto fare of $6.08.

Hmm ... good question ... not sure what happens if you trip starts at Union. Very few of mine do ...
 

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I'm amazed Queen has lagged so far behind the rest of the downtown 'U' stations. I have friends and family in town sometimes who use presto (I have a metropass, myself) and whenever we're at the Eaton Centre they have to decide between digging up tokens--if they even have any, and often they don't even have change so there's no choice--or walking all the way to Dundas instead of getting on at Queen. It's silly to have Toronto's most important mall, a designated tourist attraction, have 3 subway entrances and only 1 has taken presto for years. I hope that Queen at least gets both the north and south entrances equipped with Presto but I find myself worried--a lot of other stations have only one entrance equipped...we'll see soon, I hope.
 
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