BACKGROUNDER: History of Presto e-fare payment system
Posted November 3, 2014 4:43 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Provincial transit agency Metrolinx operates Presto, the electronic fare payment system that riders use across 11 transit systems in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area as well as Ottawa.
The electronic fare card, which was first launched in 2009 and now has more than 1.3-million cardholders, eliminates the need for tokens, tickets, passes or cash for those using any of the 11 transit system’s buses or trains. Some transit agencies also allow users to load a weekly or monthly pass on the Presto card.
The following transit systems use Presto:
- Brampton Transit
- Burlington Transit
- Durham Region Transit
- GO Transit
- Hamilton Street Railway
- MiWay
- Oakville Transit
- OC Transpo
- TTC
- York Region Transit/Viva
In November 2012, Metrolinx and the TTC struck a deal for the implementation of Presto across the public transit system. It’s a 15-year term with an automatic renewal of an additional five years.
The Presto card readers were installed as a pilot project in 14 TTC subway stations.
They are in the following subway stations:
- Bloor-Yonge
- College
- Don Mills
- Downsview
- Dundas
- Finch
- Islington
- Kipling
- Queen’s Park
- St. George
- St. Patrick
- Union
- Yorkdale
- York Mills
The Presto cards are expected to be useable throughout the TTC by 2017.
See the below August report outlining the latest Presto customer service statistics by Metrolinx. Mobile users, click here.
