City
TTC Tickets No Good Anymore
Adult TTC tickets are now officially no longer acceptable, as the transition to adopting TTC tokens for adult fares has come into effect as of midnight Sunday night.
This comes less than four months after a TTC collector sold fake tickets from booth.
This initiative is supposed to eliminate the losses (estimated at as much as $400,000 a month) that stem from counterfeiting TTC tickets, but what about the counterfeit TTC tokens? They still exist, although I'm sure they're harder to produce.
While I applaud the TTC for eliminating the adult tickets, I'd really like to see them make bigger moves with their fare process. Things like enabling the popular TTC Day Pass to be used in turnstiles like their Metropass. And adopting multi-ride swipe cards like they've had in New York City for years.
So you may now be wondering, What do you do with your adult tickets?
You can exchange them for tokens until October 31 at one of two locations: Bloor-Yonge subway station, south collector booth from Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. and at the Metropass Discount Plan (MDP) office, 1900 Yonge St. (Davisville Station, street level) from Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Seniors, students and children tickets will continue to be sold.
What sort of TTC rider are you? One that uses tickets or tokens? How inconvenienced are you by the switch to adult tokens?
Discussion
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BTW, the tokens are one of the easiest things to counterfeit. Anyone hear about the penny and scissors trick? I took the subway for free for years.
If I was one of the candidates up for election, I would increase the GST by 1% but make that go directly to specifics like public transit, health care, education, environment, etc. No one enjoys an increase in taxes but this is basically the only way we can afford to pay for the things listed above.
@yellowman: unrepentant thievery is a great way to express your inner sociopath. Try living honestly; smugness is one hell of a drug.
FWIW: 100% of the 4 stores near my work were selling fake tickets. They have permanently lost one customer.
Shame on you for stealing from our publicly funded transit system, for years no less.
Pigcat, I have seen many people caught trying to pull stuff like that. I'm sure they get away with it much of the time, but they still take the risk they'll be caught. From my understanding, the fake tickets were completely indistinguishable from the real ones. That makes it easier for the more honest people (ie, those who are more afraid of being caught) to get away with it.
There will always be those who abuse the system, such as yellowman. The least the TTC can do is discourage the honest/more timid people from doing the same.
I've always thought about how easy it would be to fake a metropass. You could get it close enough so the ticket collector wouldn't notice with their quick glance as you pass by. You'd just have to be okay with not being able to use the automatic entrances.
That was, until last week. My metropass had been demagnetized for whatever reason two weeks ago. So, as a result, I had been forced to avoid the automatic entrances. After a week of showing the collector my card I was stopped by an undercover TTCPD officer who I had to hand over my card for examination. That was enough to encourage me to continue to be honest when paying my fare.
Wait - TOKENS are a joke and should have been done away with years ago.
Yes, definitely Toronto the lagger should take the hit and install a new fare system.
A city this size with no proper downtown link to the airport. Hmmm- the TTC is full of jokes like this.
Pay for the amount of time you want from a machine, a paper card comes out with a magnetic strip and you use it until it expires.
The TTC is really bush league when it comes to this kind of stuff. (how about getting cell signals in the tunnels like they have in Europe aswell!)
You can't use the "Well the TTC has a union and stuff gets done slowly becuase of it" excuse. The public transit in Europe/Quebec has massive unions and they still adopt technology.
Why is the TTC so damn slow on things?
What the TTC alone would have to modify:
-A bus fleet of over 2,000
-Streetcars totalling 250
-69 Stations (With 6 more coming), many with multiple entry points
-In addtion to an unknown amount of other infrastructure (card readers/dispensers at every station and authorized retailers, networks of computers and servers to handle all the information, signage, advertising the change and other related switch over costs, etc, etc)
I travel back and forth between Markham and Toronto daily. I would love to see a unified smart card, but ONLY if it can be paid for without raising ticket prices.
The estimated cost for implementing it at the TTC is $300 million.
http://www.prestocard.ca
Relying on decades old methods, standards and equipment just seems to be an integral part of "the Better Way".
So at $300 Million for the Presto Card Solution, it would take the TTC 40+ years (assuming the Presto Card eliminated all forms of fraud) to make that money back.
The TTC isn't stupid (believe it or not). It all has to do with cost effectiveness. Any solution that costs more than it will prevent being lost won't be used. Plain and simple.
The Presto Card isn't being created to prevent fraud. It's being created to increase ridership and lower costs across the board. This will make the project worth it (if someone chooses to fund it). The fact it will save on counterfeiting is a side note.
Getting rid of tickets and switching soley to tokens not only saves money in combating fraud, but also saves money in producing paper tickets (similar to why the loonie and twonie were created). Tokens are more cost effective as they are reused despite them costing more to make.
Interestingly, a blurb in the 2009 proposed TTC operating budget notes that 6 new employees will be hired because of the eliminaton of adult tickets. I guess the heavier tokens require more personell to collect and distribute them.
1) The budget also forecasts "$3-4 million" of losses from fraud being eliminated by the ticket change, or about half what Rick Ducharme is quoted as saying.
2)The $300 million is for Preto Cards pretty simplistic implementation. If we start a fare by distance scheme, the rate bill will probably go up a lot as we have all sorts of equipment and IT infrastructure and software to implement that can keep track of where you exit the system, not just where you enter!
Also, the TTC is not actually eliminating tickets as many seem to think. Children and seniors' tickets will still be available, and we all know that the 65+ set are the biggest thieves on the planet.
No waiting behind old ladies.
Seriously? That's your definition of "honest"?
I'm sure people will still find out ways to rip off the system. Creating easier ways to pay your fare taking "The Better Way" will likely translate to increased ridership. I'm looking forward to improvements in they system other than simply doing away with the adult TTC tickets.
What else would you suggest?