Hey everyone!
I am debating getting either a Metropass or Monthly Pass on Presto for the TTC in March. Given the state of Presto I was wondering what peoples thoughts are?
Does anyone have any experience with Presto on here regarding it's reliability? Would hate to get a monthly pass on Presto only to have issues using it.
Reliability-wise, on surface vehicles you wouldn't have any problem--if the readers are broken the rule is you ride free, and you wouldn't have a problem with fare inspectors between the broken reader and the fact that they can see the pass on your card.
As for subway stations, the old turnstile readers and the temporary construction readers have always worked fine for me, and I haven't heard any widespread complaints about them. The faregates are another story--I've heard lots of reports of people with money on their card trying all 6 or 8 or however many gates at a given station entrance and all of them decline the card and don't open. Of course, with a metropass on the card, at that point you can wait for someone to exit, or do the umbrella trick or whatever to get in without worrying about repercussions, between the gates being broken and having a pass on your card.
The issue at this point, and I recall we've discussed this before, is the number of presto-only subway entrances vs. the number of metropass-only subway entrances, of which St. George is a notable example. Note that, at this point, I think almost every metropass-only entrance except St George is under construction to be replaced with faregates, many of which would become presto-only entrances rather than also having a pass reader now that we're in 2018 and nearing the termination of legacy fare media.
Also, I recall you're on MDP--the TTC's official MDP>Presto forced migration is currently scheduled for this May, so you're close to having to switch anyways. If your MDP is up in February, you have two options; one is to renew MDP and get cheaper passes in March and April, then they'll cancel it for you with no penalty, and you can subscribe to the Presto annual pass in May. Or, you can buy either physical or presto metropasses yourself for March and April, then subscribe to the annual pass in May. There is a strong possibility they will do limited rollouts of the annual pass in March, and especially in April, like they did in January, then you could get the discounted pass before the full rollout in May as long as you stay tuned and you're quick to subscribe to it before it's sold out. I'm not familiar with MDP, I've heard the paperwork and administration can be a disorganized headache so it may not be worth dealing with them for 2 months then having them cancel and migrate you in May vs. just doing it yourself.
