Vowing to press ahead with an open-fare payment system as an alternative to Ontario’s Presto smartcard, Toronto Transit Commission chair Adam Giambrone said Wednesday the agency will issue a request for proposals within seven to 10 days, and expects to have bids from private consortia by early September.
The fact that the current council’s term ends in November doesn’t change the timetable, he added. “Quite frankly, you’ve got to keep moving forward on policy. Things do not stop.”
But Ontario Transportation Minister Kathleen Wynne doubts the TTC will be able to turn around a complicated technology- acquisition process in such a short period. “That seems very fast to me,” she said in an interview, adding that the TTC’s plans runs counter to the province’s goal of creating an integrated transportation system across Greater Toronto.
Open fare allows riders to pay fares by tapping bank, credit or reloadable gift cards on “contactless” electronic readers as they enter stations or transit vehicles. But Ms. Wynne said riders will eventually be able to use their own credit or debit cards on the Presto network, as well as reloadable smart cards.
The commission’s bid to acquire this next-generation fare technology through a public-private partnership has been sharply criticized by mayoral candidates Rocco Rossi and George Smitherman. Joe Pantalone also said there are a lot of unanswered questions about the relative cost of both systems.
Torontonians will have a chance to scrutinize the cost of the open-fare system once the TTC has received bids, Mr. Giambrone said, but he anticipates it will be less expensive than Presto, which the TTC estimates could cost over $400- million to deploy across the system. “We’re talking tens of millions as opposed to hundreds of millions.”
To date, however, no large North American transit agency has fully rolled out an open-fare system, so there’s little opportunity for comparison shopping on features such as the transaction fees charged for using bank or credit cards.
Noting that the TTC has been talking about open fare for 18 months, Mr. Giambrone stressed that interest has not waned in U.S. cities like New York, Chicago, Washington and Philadelphia. “They’re going forward with it.”
New York launched a six-month pilot in partnership with Mastercard in June, and officials there say the trial’s goal is to collect customer feedback and track anticipated service improvements, such as speed of boarding time.
In Philadelphia, the South-Eastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) last October issued a request for proposal for an open-fare system estimated to cost $100-million. But spokesperson Andrew Busch says state budget cuts have caused the project to be delayed indefinitely. “We’re unfortunately in a holding pattern.”
Chicago transit officials last August predicted they would be embarking on a transition to a city-wide open-fare system by this summer. In an e-mail, the Chicago Transit Authority said the procurement process is under way, but gave no timelines. Diane Palmer, a spokesperson for the Regional Transportation Authority, Chicago’s version of GO Transit, said the agency has “fully embraced” the open-fare concept.
In an interview earlier this week, RTA executive Leanne Redden advised Toronto transit planners to spend six to twelve months learning from what other agencies have experienced with their own open fare projects. She said Wednesday that Toronto “can take advantage of lessons learned” in cities like London.
The TTC is modelling its forthcoming request for proposal on Chicago’s, and has already spoken to interested bidders, said Mr. Giambrone. “They’re aware it’s coming.”
