Presto is heading to phones

Multi-year project will have card reloading, fare payments and more available on the go

Transit users in the Toronto area could be using smartphones to pay for their fares in a matter of years.

Metrolinx, the provincial agency in charge of transportation for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, revealed details of its plan to enable mobile- phone payments on the Presto fare system Thursday at a meeting of its board.

Board chair Rob Prichard described the initiative as a “new era” for the agency.

“Ultimately it’s about increasing the attractiveness of using public transit,” said Annalise Czerny, acting vice-president for Presto.

“It’s giving people choice, and we know everyone wants to use their phone.”

Metrolinx plans to roll out the Presto Mobile program in three phases. The first, scheduled for completion by the end of this year, would be the introduction of an app that would allow customers to add money to their cards and manage their accounts from their phones.

The second would allow riders to pay their fare by tapping their phone against a Presto reader. Czerny said there was no firm timeline for completing that phase, but predicted it would take far less than five years.

“We’re going as fast as we can,” she said.

The third phase of would add a multimodal trip planning function to the app, and could be combined with third-party providers such as Uber and Bike Share TO to create a single hub for transportation planning and payment.

Presto is not planning to eliminate fare cards as part of the program.

Other transit agencies around the world, including in London, Los Angeles and Japan, have already enabled smartphone payments or are months away from doing so.

Meanwhile, Presto’s physical fare card system, which is being used by 11 transit services in Ontario, is not yet fully in place. Its installation on the TTC is a joint effort between Metrolinx and the Toronto transit agency, and is expected to be substantially complete this summer, seven years after the TTC agreed to adopt Presto.

Czerny asserted Metrolinx couldn’t have moved any quicker to enable mobile payments.

“The transit agencies who originally started Presto first got together almost 15 years ago, and quite frankly this (mobile payment system) didn’t exist. This would have been a fantasy at that time. So we put in the infrastructure that was state of the art at that time,” she said.

“You have to walk before you run.”

TTC spokesperson Brad Ross said the Toronto agency supports the move toward smartphone payments.

Not all smartphone owners will be able to use Presto Mobile, at least not at first.

Some of the functions planned for the first phase, as well as the ability to tap a phone to pay a Presto fare, may initially be only available on late model Android devices, and not on Apple iPhones.

Czerny said the obstacle has to do with the electronic chip that’s in every Presto card.

The chip’s manufacturer has a digital version that works on Android phones, but “Apple simply hasn’t picked that up.”

Metrolinx is hoping the tech giant will get on board as the Presto Mobile program advances. Czerny told the board Apple contacted the agency on Wednesday to set up a meeting.

Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster couldn’t immediately provide a budget for the mobile project, saying it was still in its “experimental phase.”