There’s trouble ahead for public transit riders as the TTC will completely transition to Presto on January 1, 2019. ATU Local 113, and its over 11,000 frontline workers, understand firsthand the problems and frustrations riders will soon face: malfunctioning readers, out of service card reload machines and unnecessary repair delays through Metrolinx’s private contractors.
Presto is not ready for prime time – rather, it’s proven to be a system full of technical failures and repair delays costing Toronto’s public transit system.
That’s why ATU Local 113 sent a letter to Premier Ford with our members’ firsthand experiences with Presto. These are issues riders know all too well, and further justification for why ATU Local 113’s highly trained workers must return to being responsible for fare collection repairs. A fare collection system that works better also means more accurate ridership numbers, a key metric that when underrepresented, undermines the building of badly needed transit infrastructure.
Read ATU Local 113’s letter to Premier Doug Ford on the urgent need to fix the Presto system, then see coverage on the issue below.
TTC Presto Fare System_LetterTTC union warns Presto too unreliable for agency to end Metropass program next month (Ben Spurr, Toronto Star, December 7th)
Transit union, Tory ask Ontario government to fix problems with Presto-card transition (Alanna Rizza, Canadian Press, December 9th)