TTC: New Fare Gate Installation

[Kyle Campbell]

Hopefully Presto will address this in the future, as was mentioned in other places (like everyone's favorite transit utopia Japan) have both deeper gates and much faster readers which vastly improves the flow.

Maybe our mistake was buying faregates from a country that uses POP pretty exclusively.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

College Station update - half the faregates are installed (not yet functional) and the hoarding for the other half of the entrance area is down.

AoD

 

[DSC]

I'm not sure if anyone mentioned but St.George at Bedford and Oise has been converted and St. Andrew and Dundas have all their gates in as well.

St Andrew had gates last weekend - and before - but they were not yet working. Glad they finally turned them on.

 

[TJ O'Pootertoot]

I confess, I semi-accidentally didn't pay a fare at St. Andrew the other day. I went up to one gate and tapped and realized it wasn't on. Spun in a circle. Saw an old-school presto reader. Went up to it and it wasn't working (red X on screen). Spun around again, went back to the not-activated gate and tapped and shrugged and boarded. As I went down the escalator I looked back and saw another Presto reader closer to the fare collector box but it wasn't visible from where I'd been due to the pillar. I felt bad but, lordy, get some signage people.

 

[mdrejhon]

The sensor seems to have an erratic reaction time. I've seen near-instant and I've seen over 1/2 second.

I wonder if the firmware can be refined a bit.

 

[Leo_Chan]

Queen's Park Station:

3 hours later

 

[Leo_Chan]

 

[cplchanb]

What's the latest at finch? Last pics of it showed the old turnstiles ripped out

 

[nfitz]

You can get an rfid ticket at a Subway station, but I haven't seen any plan or timeline to replace the thermal printed transfers from a bus.

Which TTC buses print thermal tickets? All I ever see are the paper transfers, which haven't changed much since the late 1800s; example below. Must be on some of the suburban routes, where I seldom travel.

Sooner than later the only way to use TTC will be with Presto cards (permanent or temporary).

One da maybey. No plan for cash to go anywhere on buses at least; that would be a lot of fare vending machines - and I don't believe there's yet been any order for something like that.

The gates are very often broken it seems. I think it is b/c they are timed to open a split second later than an average Torontonian walks. As you approach at the last second it just does not open - you stop - then it opens once you stop. I think many people just push through - hence broken.

They are a lot slower to open leaving, than when you tap or use a Metropass to enter.

So there is only a short-term problem until they require tap outs.

 

[Kyle Campbell]

Which TTC buses print thermal tickets? All I ever see are the paper transfers, which haven't changed much since the late 1800s; example below. Must be on some of the suburban routes, where I seldom travel.v

Bring remote, and also using Presto when I visit Toronto I had just assumed the TTC had at least joined the 20th century since I haven't used cash on the TTC in ages. But there's still no explanation of what happens to cash users on the bus. If they go the Vancouver route, then if the bus shows up at a fare paid area they get to transfer for free, if it drops them off in front of the station they get to pay again. Or as other users have suggested, they might get a one time use transfer ticket that gets them through the gate (preactivated before given to the driver), but it still means the cash user is getting penalized, they paid the same fare (actually more, since it's higher than a presto user), but they don't get the two hour transfer a presto user gets, or even a cash user who was within walking distance of a subway station who was able to buy a paper presto card from the machine.

So there is only a short-term problem until they require tap outs

Just for my own curiosity, did they prep the gates for eventual zone or distance pricing? When they were purchased, the TTC was pretty adamant about not having such a system, that changed (or you could say was overruled by Metrolinx) much later

 

[Leo_Chan]

It’s happening again! Lots of congestion getting out due to confusion and lines for people not paying Presto.

Should have taken a picture of the crowds getting out of the newly installed gates though

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

It’s happening again! Lots of congestion getting out due to confusion and lines for people not paying Presto.
Should have taken a picture of the crowds getting out of the newly installed gates though

Just went through it 20 mins ago - utter chaos.

AoD

 

[Student99]

So... they installed new old-style fare gates at union a couple years ago, only to rip them out shortly later? Why didn't they get their act together and install the new-style when the station was rebuilt? What a waste of money.

Don't even get me started on the money they waste on those red-shirted "info" people. They essentially do the work of a sign. During subway closures, I've seen one on each corner of an intersection.

 

[Leo_Chan]

So... they installed new old-style fare gates at union a couple years ago, only to rip them out shortly later? Why didn't they get their act together and install the new-style when the station was rebuilt? What a waste of money.

Don't even get me started on the money they waste on those red-shirted "info" people. They essentially do the work of a sign. During subway closures, I've seen one on each corner of an intersection.

I’ve learned not to question the decisions the TTC makes when I comes to common sense and saving money. The answer is always poor planning or attempted costs savings over time rather than at once.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

So... they installed new old-style fare gates at union a couple years ago, only to rip them out shortly later? Why didn't they get their act together and install the new-style when the station was rebuilt? What a waste of money.

Don't even get me started on the money they waste on those red-shirted "info" people. They essentially do the work of a sign. During subway closures, I've seen one on each corner of an intersection.

I think they didn't have a vendor selected before the reopening (much less leading up to construction) - that I can understand. The generally deficient design of the expansion is not so forgivable.

As to the "red shirts" - some are good, others are less useful than vegetables. And at Union, all stand in the way (along with clueless folks who stand in the middle of the concourse asking for directions, checking the phone, etc.)

AoD