Metrolinx testing disposable, ‘limited-use’ Presto tickets on TTC this month

Thestar.com
November 6, 2018
Ben Spurr

TTC customers could catch a glimpse of a new kind of Presto card this month.

Starting Tuesday, Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency that owns the fare card system now deployed across the TTC, will be performing field tests of disposable, “limited-use” Presto tickets at two subway stations.

The limited-use tickets are designed to allow customers to pay for single rides, round trips or day passes without buying a permanent Presto card, and aren’t expected to be available to the public until June 2019.

Metrolinx employees will perform the tests at St. Clair West and Union subway stations by loading Presto vending machines with the new tickets and then using them on TTC fare gates. Customers won’t be able to purchase the tickets during the tests, which are scheduled to last until the end of the month.

But the tests mark a key milestone for the TTC’s transition to Presto. That’s because limited-use tickets are necessary to help ensure customers who don’t have a permanent Presto card can still use the subway system once other forms of payment are phased out.

“The introduction of the single ride ticket is an important piece in the Presto rollout at the TTC,” said TTC spokesperson Heather Brown.

“It provides our customers, especially infrequent customers or visitors to the city, with another option to pay their fare. It is also the product we are waiting for before we can stop selling TTC tickets and tokens.”

The TTC intends to complete the switch to Presto at the end of 2019, when the agency will stop accepting tickets and tokens. It will also stop accepting direct cash payments at subway stations -- customers using cash for a single fare will have to buy a limited-use ticket instead.

Permanent Presto cards cost $6 each and must be loaded with a minimum of $10 before they can be used, a price that makes them unattractive to infrequent transit users.

Like the permanent plastic Presto cards already in circulation, limited-use tickets will enable customers to board the TTC by tapping on a Presto device.

The limited-use tickets won’t be reused however. They’re made of cardboard, but aren’t recyclable because of the radio-frequency identification technology embedded inside.

The "limited-use" tickets will cater to occasional users of the transit system, such as tourists, and are considered a key component of enabling the TTC to transition away from tokens and tickets.

Once the tickets go on sale, they will be available at Shoppers Drug Mart locations and Presto vending machines inside subway stations. Metrolinx expects about 10 per cent of TTC customers to eventually use the limited-use tickets.

Brown said a Presto ticket will be the same price as a cash TTC fare, which currently costs $3.25, slightly more expensive than the $3 riders pay when using a permanent Presto card.

“While (permanent) Presto cards will always be most affordable option overall, Presto tickets will give transit riders another way to pay,” said Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins.

Aikins said the field trials will “allow us to see how the ticket function works in a real-life setting.”

Social service agencies that for years have given TTC tokens to their economically struggling clients have raised concerns about whether the new Presto disposable tickets will be as easy to procure and distribute.

“We know there’s a lot of anxiety in the community,” said Susan Bender, manager of the Toronto Drop-In Network and a member of the Fair Fare Coalition transit advocacy group. The group is asking Metrolinx and the TTC to hold a public meeting on the issue.

Bender said it’s important that agencies are able to buy Presto tickets in bulk at a discount rate, and groups like hers are concerned about plans for the new tickets to expire after 90 days.

She said having to ensure the tickets are used before they expire will be a “nightmare” for agencies.

“That level of tracking is just another layer of administration on top of a very stressed system,” she said.

The TTC said it is working on a bulk purchase program, but the details, including the size of any discount, have yet to be finalized.

The TTC and Metrolinx signed an agreement in 2012 to implement Presto on Toronto’s transit system, and since then the deployment has been dogged by cost overruns and delays.

The provincial agency has spent $478 million installing Presto on the TTC so far, exceeding the provincial agency’s earlier estimate of $255 million. The transition to the fare card system was supposed to be complete by 2017.

The system was also supposed to save the TTC money on fare collection costs, but it will in fact cost the agency more.