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Metrolinx: Presto Fare Card

nfitz said:
A random transportation agency shouldn't, though the vendor for this (Accenture) is a massive global company with a half-million employees and billions a year in revenue.

They should be hiring top-notch software testers!
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That's quite riduclous if Metrolink is relying on a company that has half a million employees, yet said company isn't being safeguarding of the data for Presto properly.
 
nfitz said:
A random transportation agency shouldn't, though the vendor for this (Accenture) is a massive global company with a half-million employees and billions a year in revenue.

They should be hiring top-notch software testers!
Click to expand...

Accenture competitors that I've worked with (and for) were extremely contract driven. The warranty and support requirements in the contract guided the testing to be performed. They'd be happy to find a registered engineer to sign-off on the software for a medical device if required but by default if it gets through acceptance testing by the client, it's done.

In short, the testing Accenture does for Presto was mostly up to Metrolinx (or more recently IO).
 
rbt said:
In short, the testing Accenture does for Presto was mostly up to Metrolinx (or more recently IO).
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And we've had enough evidence of the extreme incompetence at Metrolinx, in their ability to write contracts ...

IO? I thought the project started at MTO and was later transferred to Metrolinx. I don't think IO was involved. IO seems more functional in contract writing to me ...
 
nfitz said:
IO? I thought the project started at MTO and was later transferred to Metrolinx. I don't think IO was involved. IO seems more functional in contract writing to me ...
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I assume given the announcement that all procurement will go through IO, that contract changes/addendums must also be going through them. Presto price escalations and feature changes occur regularly so I assume addendums do too.

Ultimately, blame lies with all parties who approve the contract for the government.
 
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rbt said:
I assume given the announcement that all procurement will go through IO, that contract changes/addendums must also be going through them.
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I hadn't heard that. When did they announce they'd be buying services through IO? I thought it was just capital works.
 
nfitz said:
I mean infrastructure. I dug further, but I don't see any indication of Infrastructure Ontario being involved with Presto. Is there a link?
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Just the general minister statement saying IO was expanding it's reach and other departments would not be doing that type of work on their own anymore. Perhaps the added IO oversight will improve results rather than just pushing down costs (and adding delays for an extra layer of communication).

If it's anything like the Tribunals Ontario restructuring, it'll take a couple years before staff actually know how things work again.
 
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rbt said:
Just the general minister statement saying IO was expanding it's reach and other departments would not be doing that type of work on their own anymore. Perhaps the added IO oversight will improve results rather than just pushing down costs (and adding delays for an extra layer of communication).
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Oh, you are referring to future contracts not current ones? That's possible.

Given how poor Metrolinx's contractual abilities seem to be, perhaps IO doing more of it might be the solution - they seem to have far more competence in the area.
 
The readers are really iffy. Sometimes they work, sometimes the don't.

I got on the bus this morning and 3-4 people, including myself, weren't able to tap on either at the front or back. It wasn't until my wife tapped her card on the back that it, for some reason, allowed the rest of us to tap.

I've seen the same thing happen at the actual Presto gates as well. Or sometimes, it won't read and when you try another gate, it tells you that your card is declined.

It truly boggles my mind as to why this city never thinks ahead and future-proofs.
 
Hieberrr said:
The readers are really iffy. Sometimes they work, sometimes the don't.

I got on the bus this morning and 3-4 people, including myself, weren't able to tap on either at the front or back. It wasn't until my wife tapped her card on the back that it, for some reason, allowed the rest of us to tap.

I've seen the same thing happen at the actual Presto gates as well. Or sometimes, it won't read and when you try another gate, it tells you that your card is declined.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I've noticed that on a machine in the last month or two - I think it's a newer behaviour. Though every time I've seen it the other machine has been fine. Then suddenly people entering are getting the frozen one to work.

It's almost like they've added some reboot process ... that shows the tap symbol before it's ready to accept taps. If so, it's probably better than being broken. But would be better if it was functional before displaying the symbol that looks like it is working!
 
nfitz said:
Yeah, I've noticed that on a machine in the last month or two - I think it's a newer behaviour. Though every time I've seen it the other machine has been fine. Then suddenly people entering are getting the frozen one to work.

It's almost like they've added some reboot process ... that shows the tap symbol before it's ready to accept taps. If so, it's probably better than being broken. But would be better if it was functional before displaying the symbol that looks like it is working!
Click to expand...

I had that experienece boarding the front door of a 503 bus about two weeks ago. The driver said "It seems to only be working for about one out of three people today. Try the back one." So I tried it and it didn't work either. At the next stop everyone who got on experienced the same problem. However, at the stop after that, both devices spontaneously started working again for everyone.
 
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A transit card is something that I use to take transit and not to otherwise think about. I don't expect to have to pore over my bill, have to call customer service, argue about charges, worry if it worked or not at any given time.

Presto is a nightmare. Could they have made this thing any more complicated?
 
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