The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) has stopped selling tickets, tokens and passes at subway stations and has switched to its easier and more convenient PRESTO fare collection system.
PRESTO is a fare card that is tapped before entering a TTC bus or subway. According to TTC, the PRESTO adoption rate among customers is 83 percent.
For most TTC customers, tickets and tokens are already a distant memory. Customers have been able to use PRESTO across the TTC network since the end of 2016, with the rollout of the fare system to all subway stations and more than 2,000 TTC surface vehicles.
Since then, Metrolinx has been offering an expanding array of self-serve options for customers. Riders can load funds, buy monthly passes or purchase cards at one of several self-serve machines in all subway stations or use the PRESTO App to buy a card and load funds and monthly passes onto their card wherever they are.
In addition to these self-serve options, customers can purchase and load cards in-person at any Shoppers Drug Mart in Toronto or at TTC’s Customer Service Center at Davisville Station. And Metrolinx says it is continually looking at ways to make it even easier to purchase and load PRESTO cards.
While most customers are already PRESTO users, Metrolinx and TTC worked together to encourage remaining customers to switch over during the transition period.
TTC says there are many benefits to having a PRESTO card – customers can use their card to travel on 10 other transit systems across the greater Toronto area and the city of Hamilton, as well as Ottawa. Customers who register their cards online can set their accounts to add funds when they get too low or renew passes before they expire.
By registering their card, they can also protect their balances if their cards are lost. Customers can also tap on the TTC and travel an unlimited number of times, in any direction, within a two-hour window – a benefit exclusively available on PRESTO.
Metrolinx is also continuously adding to the PRESTO Perks program, which gets riders discounts on major events and attractions throughout the region, just by showing their card.
For visitors, occasional riders or customers who’ve forgotten their PRESTO card, they have the option of using a PRESTO Ticket. One-ride, two-ride and day pass PRESTO tickets can be purchased at any subway station or Shoppers Drug Mart in Toronto.
Customers will still be able to purchase TTC tickets and tokens from third-party retailers.
