^^Wow!
I am taking this from Steve Munro, and maybe someone here can clarify it, but is it true you will not be able to load passes into the e-purse? That's a serious drawback if it's true. I do not see why it should be hard to simply pay the cost of a pass online, or at an agent and use the PRESTO card as normal pass.
To add a bit more detail, as I understand it the underlying system does allow for the concept of passes, but the operators implementing it have moved towards the idea of loyalty pricing. The idea is that if you are at the level of usage where you woudl buy a pass, you will get the same total pricing just by riding the system, including reaching a point at which further rides in a month are free. However, if you DON'T ride enough in a month to justify the cost of a pass (say, due to a vacation), you will pay only for the rides you took and will save some money.
The point here is that you get all of the benefits of the pass, including the ability to claim it for income tax purposes, without needing to commit to making a certain number of rides in a month. You can just ride the system and now that you are getting the best available pricing depending on your total number of rides.
On another note, Giambrone's Twitter war against PRESTO continues. One posting read: Presto was state of the art when announced 7 years ago but is already obsolete. Adopting Presto would just be throwing good money after bad
Now, later he did admit in a response to someone: @majken we will support taking Presto, but it is expensive and we're not able to pay for it. Open payments is cheaper and the future.
There seems to be a lot of political posturing going on right now.
PS, word from a birdie is that there are a LOT of TTC riders using PRESTO between the supported subway stations.