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Ottawa has announced that they will be implementing open payments using contactless VISA, MC, Apple Pay and Google Pay using their existing PRESTO fare-payment infrastructure:


The announcement states that one train station will be enabled before the end of the year and others will follow. This development is being made separate from PRESTO. As Ottawa owns it's own equipment, it runs on a local backend with PRESTO laid on top. This allows Ottawa to run non-PRESTO applications on its equipment, including employee cards, concession cards, and now open payments. This is an interesting development, especially considering how slow PRESTO has been to adapt to changes.
 
Something that I have noticed with the new Presto readers on buses (specifically on YRT) is that they don’t seem as reliable or quick as the previous readers. There’s always a lag in the reader reading cards and on quite a number of occasions they don’t even read the card.

I have been told that the new readers will soon accept credit cards and a driver can manually charge multiple fares on one tap if the passenger is paying for more than one (perhaps only on YRT).
 
I'm getting deja vu, of the TTCconnect app released in 2015. It was immediately cancelled and forgotten about, because it was so easy to fraud the system

Yeah. A visual only system isn't particularly good.

Due to Ottawa, however, the new Presto machines can confirm barcodes which a central server could confirm was a purchased ticket which has been only used once.

I'm glad we're moving towards open payment.

As am I. I still don't understand why Gen 1 machines didn't require that spec in the 2006 tender; the damn spec was released in 2003 largely based on correcting mistakes from Hong Kong and London stored value cards. Both transit agencies would have notified MTO/GO about it when they started doing studies in late 2002.
 
Yeah. A visual only system isn't particularly good.

Due to Ottawa, however, the new Presto machines can confirm barcodes which a central server could confirm was a purchased ticket which has been only used once.



As am I. I still don't understand why Gen 1 machines didn't require that spec in the 2006 tender; the damn spec was released in 2003 largely based on correcting mistakes from Hong Kong and London stored value cards. Both transit agencies would have notified MTO/GO about it when they started doing studies in late 2002.

Ottawa's barcoded tickets run separately from the PRESTO system. Their on-board tickets (transfers) are issued by the Clever Devices system and visually validated, and the train tickets are issued by the S&B system.

Interestingly, the UP Express equipment was of the same generation as Ottawa and the TTC's and already supported open payments. I'm guessing it was just easier to move it to the same equipment that GO is/will be using.
 
Interesting plan for fare integration from the Toronto Region Board of Trade.



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Interesting plan for fare integration from the Toronto Region Board of Trade.



View attachment 285023

Just to sample what their model would do:

Current Fare: (Presto)

Union Station to GO - Hamilton $11.44
Union Station to Downtown Brampton $8.67
Union Station to Unionville $7.78
Union Station to Milton $10.31

New Fare:

Union Station to GO - Hamilton $12.00 ( +.66c)
Union Station to Downtown Brampton $6 (--$2.67)
Union Station to Unionville $6.25 ($ -1.53)
Union Station to Milton $8 ($-2.31)

With any luck I got that right.
 

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