Metrolinx ‘not satisfied’ as Presto system hit with more technical glitches

$15,000 machines prone to technical problems and are proving unreliable.

Thestar.com
Dec. 6, 2016
By Ben Spurr

The Presto fare card system has been hit with more technical problems, the Star has learned, and this time they’re afflicting new payment machines that cost the government $15,000 each.

A spokesperson for Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency that owns Presto, confirmed that it is investigating frequent glitches affecting its self-serve reload machines, which she said “are not meeting reliability targets.”

“Why the machines aren’t completely reliable is under investigation,” Anne Marie Aikins wroted in an email. “We are not satisfied with the performance.”

Metrolinx paid more than $1 million for 75 of the devices, which are supposed to allow riders to add value to their Presto cards using credit or debit cards.

The first ones were installed about a year ago, but reports of widespread technical problems began surfacing only in the past two to three weeks.

Aikins said she didn’t know the cause or extent of the problem. But the glitches appear to be separate from the malfunctions that caused a high number of Presto readers on TTC buses and streetcars to go offline earlier this year.

Markus Doerr, a designer who lives in the west end, said he couldn’t find a single working reload machine at Union Station last Friday when he tried to put money on his card to take the GO train to Kitchener.

He checked four machines in different parts of the station but after 30 minutes, he gave up and stood in line to buy a ticket.

“I was p----d off,” he said. Doerr has used a Presto card on GO for years but says the rollout on the TTC has been “frustrating” at times.

The Presto system is now used by 11 transit agencies in the GTA and Ottawa.

Sixty-four of the reload machines have been deployed at stations on the TTC network, which plans to phase out all other forms of payment in late 2017. Six of the machines are on GO Transit and five serve the Union Pearson Express.

TTC spokesperson Brad Ross said that the malfunctioning machines have caused “huge frustration” for some customers, but that the transit agency would rather see problems crop up now than when the TTC becomes wholly reliant on Presto next year.

“We’re confident that Metrolinx is working hard to resolve these issues,” Ross said.

Only about 6 per cent of TTC trips are currently paid for using Presto.

Metrolinx has ordered 250 “second generation” reload machines that it plans to roll out in the new year.