TTC to complete Presto switch by 2018

Transit agency clarifies timeline for when it will stop accepting older forms of payment

Thestar.com
Dec. 8, 2016
By Ben Spurr

The TTC’s full conversion to the Presto fare card system will take longer than the transit agency had previously told the public.

At a meeting of the Metrolinx board of directors on Thursday, Robert Hollis, Metrolinx vice-president for Presto, said he expected that it could be “well into 2018” before Toronto’s transit agency will be able to phase out all other forms of payment in favour of the fare card.

The TTC had previously told the media and said in public documents that tickets, tokens, and passes would be phased out in 2017. A TTC spokesperson told the Star that the mixed messaging was the result of confusion about when the agency would stop selling older forms of payment, as opposed to when it would stop accepting them.

Exactly when in 2018 the switch will be completed isn’t clear.

“There will be a point I would say sometime later next year when we’re in a position where we start thinking about withdrawing certain fare media, but we haven’t had that discussion or landed any particular dates yet,” Hollis said.

“I’d say somewhere later next year that that starts to begin. And then well into 2018 could be a point where much of the legacy fare media has been retired.”

The TTC’s chief customer officer and deputy CEO Chris Upfold said that there had been no change in plans and “there is no delay.”

He said that the TTC had always intended to stop selling tickets, tokens, and passes by the end of next year, but it will have to continue to accept some older forms of payment beyond that date.

“There are more than 20 million tokens in people’s hands so we need to continue to accept those, for example, for some time after we stop selling them,” Upfold said.

The TTC can’t refund the tokens because their price fluctuates from year to year and the agency has no way of knowing their value when customers bought them.

The Presto system is owned by Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency for the GTHA.

As of March 31, its installation on the TTC had cost $276.7 million, more than $20 million beyond initial estimates.