mdrejhon
Senior Member
The UPX will pick up at Union and Pearson, as UPX is a fully operational service then. But the freebie may be aimed at Weston and Bloor only.
NotMathematical
Active Member
Komiksulo
Active Member
Wow, look at all the different ticket types!
Komiksulo
Active Member
There's a "Meet-and-Greet" ticket which is a return ticket with a one-way fare that originates at Union and expires three hours after you first ride; there's a "Long Layover" ticket which is the same thing, but originating from pearson and expires six hours after you first ride. Will these kinds of concessions will be available for Presto users?
mdrejhon
Senior Member
Interesting. The UPX is offering long layovers to visit downtown Toronto. Six hours would give you a nice whirlwind tour of downtown Toronto. Not much time but that is one neat effect of having a quick way to downtown and back, unaffected by rush hour congestion.
Megaton327
Senior Member
They will not. They are exclusively cash and exclusively online, you cannot even get them at the TVMs or the service counters. A Presto return trip for an adult would be $38.00 compared to the $27.50 for one of those fares. I'm going with Meet & Greet to try it out on launch day.
CDL.TO
Moderator
I want to give some serious kudos to UP for offering some interesting fare options like the meet and greet and long layover. It's the type of creative thinking and marketing-oriented approach we rarely see in the public sector.
These fares will increase goodwill and, more importantly, allow them to access a market who wouldn't otherwise consider using UP.
It'll be interesting to see what other fare products we see as things are tweaked over the coming years.
On a related note, BART in the Bay Area sells medium-term parking so people can park at its stations and take the train to SFO. Could we see Metrolinx offer the same thing at GO stations?
These fares will increase goodwill and, more importantly, allow them to access a market who wouldn't otherwise consider using UP.
It'll be interesting to see what other fare products we see as things are tweaked over the coming years.
On a related note, BART in the Bay Area sells medium-term parking so people can park at its stations and take the train to SFO. Could we see Metrolinx offer the same thing at GO stations?
nfitz
Superstar
Seems a bit unfair only selling long-layover fares online. So someone with a good smartphone can buy it in the airport for $27.50 and others pay $53?
TOareaFan
Superstar
I would bet the assumption they made was that long layovers are likely a planned/known thing and that the people most interested in this sort of fare would know they had the layover before they left for Toronto and would likely be searching around online for "things to do during a 6 hour layover in Toronto" and would, then, be likely online, in advance, purchasers. I think they are, in the main, probably correct in this assumption.
nfitz
Superstar
In which case, what is the downside of simply selling them from the ticket machines at Pearson?
mdrejhon
Senior Member
Presto cards will be sold at the airport, so not all of them will pay $53. Of course, that presents a choice between using a Presto ($38 roundtrip same-day) versus online ($27.50 roundtrip same-day)
Either way, these are very creative options ($27.50 same-day roundtrips for meet-and-greet and long-layovers). Not everyone will use them, and maybe not that many will, but definitely at least some will, and the existence increases goodwill even with other people who don't use these options. They are low-lying marketing apples at are great.
nfitz
Superstar
Seems simpler to me to simply sell those 6-hour returns from Pearson on the machines - and allow those using Presto to do a 3-hour return from Pearson for a smaller charge.
I'm not thrilled that as I'm rushing to the airport to go pick someone up, I'm also going to have to spend time to stop and buy a ticket online before I leave, rather than simply using my Presto card.
mdrejhon
Senior Member
True about Presto, but they might have wanted to prevent confusing/complicating travellers with a big menu of choices on the machines.
Maybe this will change later. They're likely to tweak things.
With the UPX, it would usually no longer be a big rush, wouldn't it?
Maybe this will change later. They're likely to tweak things.
With the UPX, it would usually no longer be a big rush, wouldn't it?
nfitz
Superstar
I'm always late ...
Komiksulo
Active Member
Hmm... I went half-way through the buying process to see what payment methods they take (why don't they put that information at the beginning?), and they take AmEx, Visa, MasterCard, and Discover. No Interac Online, or other payment cards like UnionPay. It turns out that someone I know is coming back from Hong Kong on the 18th of June, so I may get to try it out sooner than expected. Presumably you get an emailed PDF ticket which you can show for scanning on your phone, as I've done on Via.