Metrolinx will test debit, credit payments

Agency plans to pilot system on UP Express

TTC riders could finally be granted the option of paying their fare with the tap of a debit or credit card. But it won’t happen until at least 2023, more than a decade after Metrolinx pledged to use the Presto system to enable contactless credit and debit payment on Toronto’s network. According to TTC CEO Rick Leary’s most recent monthly report, Metrolinx, the provincial agency that oversees Presto, plans to pilot an “open payment” system on the Union Pearson Express next year. If all goes to plan, Metrolinx will test the system on the TTC in 2023. Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins said the agency chose the UP Express for the pilot because the airport rail service is a standalone line that has a simple fare structure.

Asked why it has taken so long to set up open payment on the TTC, Aikins said Metrolinx is “committed to working together with the TTC to deliver new, modern payment options.”

She confirmed the existing Presto devices deployed across the TTC will need to be replaced in order to support open payment.

Open payment allows riders to pay by tapping a contactless credit or debit card, or a mobile wallet, directly on readers at stations and on vehicles.

While open payment in Toronto is still years away, other transit systems have already adopted it. Transport for London launched it in the U.K. capital in 2012, and Vancouver’s TransLink introduced it in 2018. In September, New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced open payment was available at all 151 of Manhattan’s subway stations.

Metrolinx’s slow progress on contactless payment was one of the factors that prompted the TTC to take the provincial agency to arbitration last year. The city agency argued Metrolinx had failed to live up to the terms of the 2012 master agreement, under which the TTC is obligated to pay Presto a 5.25 per cent commission on each trip paid for using the fare card. Last year, the TTC projected it would spend about $50 million on Presto fees.

Negotiations between the two sides have progressed however and according to Leary’s report the agencies hope to settle outstanding issues by January.