I kind of admire nfitz's steadfast defence of TTC but I just don't see it.
TTC was perfectly content to keep paying people ridiculous salaries to hand out stupid little tokens no matter what every other transit system on earth was doing. This move has nothing to do with helping riders or supporting new technology - I don't see anything other than it being about a pissing contest with the province.
Since Metrolinx came on board they've effectively been told they're a piece of a bigger puzzle (albeit the biggest, most important piece) and they don't like that. They like to pretend they exist in a bubble. They want the province's money (and rightly so) but they don't want to do the province's bidding. It's ridiculous, IMHO, to tie this into the recent funding delays - TTC objected to Presto from Day One not because they were waiting for open technology but because they didn't want something imposed on them. They are betting, as you suggest, that they are so big and powerful that a dozen other transit systems will give up on Presto because of this. Sadly for them, the TTC and Toronto remain largely at the mercy of the province and this is not going to speed up them getting Transit City money (or, ha ha, DRL money).
nfitz points out they don't have an infinite amount of money, and yet apparently they have enough to research and implement their own fare system while a dozen other municipalities implement a different one. I guess economies of scale don't factor in?
This is all about power and anyone who thinks it's about riders or technology or the injustice of transit funding is, I think, fooling themselves. It's not like they made the announcement and had the head of York Region Transit saying they're ditching Presto to go with TTC's superior system.
And to the comment above, fare integration is a red herring except to the extent that is facilitated by having multiple transit systems on the same card. The issue is not a double fare - it's pulling out ONE card to pay those two fares.
If I'm wrong, I suggest we wait another 5 years and then see what amazing technology TTC can find. Let's just keep waiting forever until Adam Giambrone is happy, and then the other 5 million people in the GTA can get along with their lives.
OH - and if you don't think the province is pissed enough to cut TTC off at the knees when the time comes, check out the harsh wording in this just-released press release:
[SNIP - edited out since it was posted as I was typing
]
So, now they're playing a game of political chicken. Good luck.
P.S. I think you're missing what DavidH said above. Typically, the capital funding for transit has been 1/3 from each level of government so, yes, the city surely expected to pay for 1/3 of the TC costs (let's not even talk about their streetcar stimulus bluff). Move2020 was supposed to force the feds hands and it didn't work, forcing the province to effectively pay 2/3 of fewer projects.