GROWING PAINS
Heather Dixon lost her Presto card and tracked a stranger using it. Then she got frustrated. As the new transit pass system revs up, we look into some common concerns
A Burlington woman who had to watch helplessly as a stranger racked up charges on her lost Presto card is raising concerns about the fare system that is quickly becoming the main way to pay for transit across the GTHA.
Heather Dixon’s frustrations began Monday, when she was taking the GO train home to Burlington. As the train approached her station she realized she couldn’t find her Presto card.
“I looked around quickly and I couldn’t see it, so then I just had to get off the train,” she said.
Dixon, 39, who works in publishing, asked a GO employee what to do about her card, which still had $93 loaded on it.
Dixon has been using Presto for about a year and a half, but like many transit users in the region, she still has plenty of questions about how the fare card system works. As the TTC, which is by far the region’s biggest transit agency, moves towards full implementation of the card, the Star is answering those questions.
In Dixon’s case, the employee advised her to visit the Presto website and report her card lost.
Dixon said she immediately went online and did so.
But she was surprised to read it could take up to 24 hours for Presto to actually block her lost card and that she would be liable for any charges made to the card in the meantime.
Later that day she checked her account activity online and discovered a lucky but unscrupulous GO rider was using her card, taking a bus in Burlington, and then heading toward Port Credit. Whoever it was quickly spent about $20.
“It was frustrating to me to know that somebody had my card and was going to use it, and there was nothing I could do about it,” Dixon said. “I was pretty mad.”
To make matters worse, Dixon had set up Presto’s auto-load function, which automatically adds money from a customer’s credit card or bank account to their Presto card once its balance dips below a pre-set level.
Dixon feared whoever had her card could rack up enough charges over 24 hours to have the auto-load kick in, costing her yet more money.
She wanted to cancel the auto-load feature, but in an online help chat Monday evening a Presto representative told her that was impossible as auto-load can only be cancelled before a card is reported lost. No one had told her that.
“I just think the advice I was given was not the best advice,” she said.
Frustrated, Dixon took to Twitter to vent, calling Presto a “horrible idea.” The tweets captured the attention of Metrolinx, the provincial agency in charge of Presto, and by Tuesday the organization promised to reimburse her for the money the stranger had spent on her card.
Dixon said she was happy with the eventual outcome, but says she no longer trusts the fare card, which she called “super inconvenient.”
“Why does it take 24 hours, and what can be done to fix things?” she asked.
According to Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins, the lag for making changes to fare card accounts online, which includes other transactions such as loading funds, is not unique to Presto.
“Many well-used fare payment systems across the world have wait times associated with online transactions,” she said in an email. Transactions at Presto machines in subway stations and elsewhere can be instantaneous.
Aikins said it can take up to a day for online changes because all Presto account information is stored on the fare card itself. When a customer makes an online transaction such as adding funds to or cancelling their card, the change is logged into the central Presto system, then the updated information is distributed to fare devices across the transit system.
The updated account information is only transmitted to a customer’s physical card once they tap it on a Presto device. However, some Presto devices connect to the central network less often than others.
Fare card readers on TTC vehicles are frequently connected to the central system through a mobile network, so a customer tapping on those machines can implement changes to their account quickly.
But Presto card readers on GO buses only connect to the central network when they enter one of the agency’s garages, which they only do about once a day.
However, the auto-load function can be disabled instantly on the Presto website. Aikins couldn’t immediately say why Dixon wasn’t advised to disable that feature before cancelling her card, but said the agency is updating the messaging on its website to clarify the issue.
Asked whether other Presto users who find themselves in Dixon’s situation will also be reimbursed for any lost funds, Aikins made no guarantees.
“While we do look at each situation independently, our policy is that we are not responsible for costs incurred within 24 hours of cancellation,” she said.
Presto is used by 11 transit agencies across Ontario. This month the TTC, by far the region’s biggest transit system, took a major step toward the full implementation of the technology by eliminating its Metropass. Customers must now buy monthly passes on Presto instead. The Presto card: Your questions answered The Presto fare card system was designed to modernize the outdated operations of the Toronto Transit Commission and other transit agencies in Ontario, but the transition has not been without problems.
While some customers report using Presto is far more convenient than the old-fashioned tokens and tickets, others say they’ve encountered serious glitches that have undermined their faith in the system.
The TTC plans to stop selling tickets and tokens on Aug. 3, and to stop accept- ing them by Dec. 31.
Ahead of those milestones, the Star put readers’ pressing Presto questions to the TTC and Metrolinx: Why don’t the TTC’s Presto readers show users’ card balances, but those on other transit systems do? TTC spokesperson Heather Brown says it opted not to have Presto readers show passengers’ balance out of privacy concerns. Each transit agency made its own choice on the issue, and some decided displaying card balances didn’t pose a problem.
The TTC also worried that customers pausing to check their balances would slow entry into the system and create crowding problems.
Brown noted customers can check their card balance at machines located at every subway station. She said the TTC may reconsider its policy, but would have to be satisfied there are no privacy issues, and that displaying balances wouldn’t discriminate against transit users who can’t see. Do Presto users always have to tap their card, even if they are transferring to a bus or streetcar inside a subway station? What about if they have a prepaid monthly pass on Presto? While a fare is only deducted from the first tap of a TTC trip using a regular Presto card, Brown said customers should tap every time they board a vehicle or enter a station.
“It is a good habit to get into it. Tapping deducts your fare, verifies your monthly pass and validates your two-hour transfer. It also provides us with useful service planning data,” she said.
Brown added that tapping consistently speeds up the process if a customer who has a monthly pass on Presto is asked by a fare inspector to provide proof-of-payment.
“They can immediately see the card has been tapped and the pass has been verified.” Does the TTC plan to introduce caps that would limit the amount Presto users would be charged in a single day, week or month? Following the lead of other transit agencies, the TTC intends to introduce a cap in the spring that would only charge customers for the first 16 trips they take in a week. Subsequent trips would be free.
But the agency has no plans to introduce daily or monthly maximums. Brown said that with the TTC’s new two-hour transfer rule, customers would have to travel close to eight hours before they would benefit from a daily cap.
She said a monthly cap was ruled out because the Presto system “is only able to support one loyalty program on a card,” and the TTC decided to use it for a weekly cap. That’s because the agency already has a monthly discount product in the form of the monthly pass (formerly called the Metropass). When will the TTC introduce singleuse Presto tickets? The TTC plans to start selling single-use tickets, which will allow customers to take one trip without buying a $6 Presto card, by June at the latest.
The tickets would cost the same as a cash fare, which currently sits at $3.25. Metrolinx has been testing the tickets since November, and says they might even be ready sooner than planned. Are customers always required to load $10 onto their Presto card when they first purchase it, even if they’re buying a monthly pass? When purchasing a Presto card, customers generally have the option of either adding the minimum amount of $10 or loading a monthly pass.
However, a customer buying a discounted 12-month TTC pass can only load that product online to a card that is already registered and active. According to Metrolinx, that means the person has to first load $10 onto the card, and then go online and pay for the 12-month pass, which costs $134 per month.
People setting senior or youth concessions for cards bought at vending machines also have to load the minimum amount before they can purchase a pass.
Customers who buy passes no longer need the initial $10 they put on the card to ride on the TTC, and some users say having to load that amount before buying a pass amounts to a cash grab.
Brown said customers can use the $10 to ride other transit services like the Union Pearson Express.
Lag for making changes to fare card accounts online is not unique to Presto, Metrolinx says