PRESTO/Fare Collection

[gjhall]

Originally Posted by McC

they did just finish rebuilding all 8 stations in the CBD...

Indeed, and I would think that was the last opportunity for capital improvements...

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by McC

they did just finish rebuilding all 8 stations in the CBD...

Including with wiring for "future" real-time digital displays of bus arrivals...

[waterloowarrior]

was looking through the OC 2012 business plan. Presto is coming in July
http://ottawa.ca/calendar/ottawa/cit...)%20e-copy.htm

[waterloowarrior]

special transit committee meeting for Presto tomorrow....

[J.OT13]

Just to clarify the last 4-5 years; 1.we had the 70's plastic fare boxes that worked 100% of the time (unless you put gum in the slot!?), 2.then they bought the shitty electronic fare boxes with those new tickets that craped out all the time (how much did those cost? how much revenue did we lose?) and 3.then about a year later in 08', they signed a 25 million bullsh** double standard contract with the province for "PRESTO"?

So why did we waste millions on those shitty electronic boxes in (I think) 07?

[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Just to clarify the last 4-5 years; 1.we had the 70's plastic fare boxes that worked 100% of the time (unless you put gum in the slot!?), 2.then they bought the shitty electronic fare boxes with those new tickets that craped out all the time (how much did those cost? how much revenue did we lose?) and 3.then about a year later in 08', they signed a 25 million bullsh** double standard contract with the province for "PRESTO"?

So why did we waste millions on those shitty electronic boxes in (I think) 07?

The old fareboxes were no longer in production and they expanded the fleet size so they couldn't use them anymore. I agree they could have shopped around for them second hand though...

The province should definitely be paying for all delays and fare losses regarding PRESTO bugs, however. Would a different system have been easier? Probably not at first. STO faced bugs and problems back in 2000 introducing their smart cards.

I do agree the agency internally needs an investigation as there may be way too many bureaucrats and waste going around, similar to eHealth and ORNGE. That has nothing to do with OC Transpo though.

[eternallyme]

It might not be ready until 2013 or later.

Time to scrap it and switch to an alternate system? Sure, Mr. McGuinty won't be happy, but this is becoming a major scandal...and the City of Ottawa is an innocent victim...

[eternallyme]

The meeting today said:

* Extended trial to February 1, 2013.
* If the system is still not working then, OC will look at pulling out of PRESTO
* Metrolinx will pay for fare issues - up to a point, but they were vague
* A lot of saving face at Metrolinx and Accenture
* Motion to be moved to restore the Ecopass for 2012-13

What alternative systems are there? If OC Transpo decides to pull out, how long could it take to set up another system - presumably one tried and tested with other major transit agencies?

[lrt's friend]

Why does a system that works in Toronto can't be made to work in Ottawa?

[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

Why does a system that works in Toronto can't be made to work in Ottawa?

No idea. Perhaps it has to do with the updated system that is being introduced in Ottawa (and spread to the GTA - and elsewhere?).

[waterloowarrior]

staff recommends moving foward with the launch!
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa...-adoption.html

[rocketphish]

Presto upgrade: New and improved version of bus-payment system on the way

By Joanne Chianello, OTTAWA CITIZEN December 5, 2013



If you’re frustrated with your Presto pass experience, OC Transpo’s boss has some good news for you: An imminent upgrade to the system should address many of your issues, including shortening the time it takes to load money onto the system to a mere four hours.

The downside? Fixing the system to upload funds faster won’t be completed until sometime in the New Year.

John Manconi, OC Transpo’s general manager, is scheduled to give a “major update” to the city’s transit commission on Monday about the upgrade to the 2.2 version of the Presto bus-payment system that has worked for scores of riders, but is causing headaches for many others.

Manconi has admitted that, while there’s been excellent take-up of the green “tap-and-go” cards, the city needs to work with Metrolinx — the provincial agency that manages the Presto system — to “improve the customer experience.”

Ottawa and Toronto will upgrade to Presto 2.2 at the same time, “very very soon,” said Manconi. He won’t spell out the details until Monday’s meeting, but the technical update could be carried out this month.

The new version should mean a number of improvements to the system, such as allowing monthly pass holders to easily order a holiday stoppage online.

“You can do that right now, but it’s cumbersome, you have to fill out a form,” said Manconi.

The changes will also make it possible to either “upgrade or downgrade” passes online, an important option if, for example, someone moves or changes jobs and no longer need the more costly express pass. And with the upgrade, Ottawa users will be able to use their Presto passes in Toronto, and vice-versa.

These changes will occur quickly after the new version is implemented. However, it’ll take a couple of months — “first quarter of 2014,” is how Manconi put it — to improve the lag time many are experiencing from the time they put money on their cards and when it’s accessible for use.

Up until now, bus riders have to wait anywhere from 24 to 48 hours before they can use the money they put on their cards. That’s because the on-board readers need to be updated at OC Tranpso depots in order to update the systems — and sometimes buses don’t make it to depots for a day or two.

The newer Presto version will include “the technology piece that will enable us to implement that fix” to shorten that lag time to a mere four hours, said Manconi, but “it’s going to take a little time.”

Manconi said that there will some minor inconveniences during the upgrade — “nothing earth-shattering” — that he’ll discuss at Monday’s meeting. For example, there will be a period when customers won’t be able to order a card online.

But he stressed that riders will still be able to tap-and-go during the upgrade, as long as they already have a loaded Presto card.

jchianello@ottawacitizen.com

twitter.com/jchianello
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/ot...767/story.html

[lrt's friend]

I hope they improve the process to register to auto reload your card. It took close to 2 months and a few attempts before it worked for me.

[phil235]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

I hope they improve the process to register to auto reload your card. It took close to 2 months and a few attempts before it worked for me.

I figured it out too, but it was far from easy. Then when I went back to check to see if it worked, I could find no trace of what I had done. But it is a good system once it's set up.

I'm particularly excited to see that the cards will (theoretically) work in Toronto and the GTA. I thought that was several years off - did Presto cut us a deal to make up for the fiasco this has been?

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

I hope they improve the process to register to auto reload your card. It took close to 2 months and a few attempts before it worked for me.

I set it up in 5 minutes and it worked flawlessly for me... am I the exception?

[gjhall]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

I set it up in 5 minutes and it worked flawlessly for me... am I the exception?

I had the same experience until it suddenly stopped working last week! Following an argument with a driver,

Driver: The machine says insufficient funds
Me: Impossible. It's on auto-reload.
Driver: The machine says insufficient funds.
Me: Impossible.
Driver: The machine says insufficient funds.
Me: What do you want me to do?
Driver: [signals to get on]

I signed up again for auto reload and it worked again 2 hours later. Odd, but not earth shattering.

[rocketphish]

Major Presto upgrade to arrive in mid-January

Metrolinx confident there are no serious bugs included in new software version

By David Reevely, OTTAWA CITIZEN December 9, 2013 7:01 PM

OTTAWA — A major upgrade to OC Transpo’s Presto fare-payment system will add long-awaited features such as quicker updates to riders’ cards if they add money to their accounts online, but will make the system much less accessible for a week in January.

The cards themselves should work as well as ever throughout from Jan. 5 to Jan. 12, but riders won’t be able to order new cards online in that time and won’t be able to do anything online from Jan. 10 to Jan. 12, said a vice-president of Metrolinx who explained things to Ottawa’s transit commission Monday.

Metrolinx is the province agency that built the Presto system for Ottawa and numerous transit agencies in the Toronto area. Vice-president Darryl Browne came to catch rotten tomatoes flung by transit commissioners still angry over Presto’s botched rollout here in summer 2012. The commissioners want to make absolutely sure nobody blames them if something goes wrong this time.

“I think it’s fair to say that Ottawa as a whole doesn’t love Presto,” commissioner Blair Crew told Browne. It’s only now that there’s even talk of having a system that does all things it was supposed to do in the first place. Its website is clumsy and its failures are opaque. Moreover, he said, this upgrade will happen right when students are going back to school, and their vacationing parents back to work. Is that wise?

“There’s some logic behind those dates,” explained OC Transpo general manager John Manconi. At mid-month, nobody’s buying passes online, for instance. “To be blunt, we insisted on that date.”

Coun. Shad Qadri asked whether the upgraded system, running Presto version 2.2, has been tested outside a lab. Yes, said Browne, in a mock-up of a real transit environment. As a former small-business owner (he ran Showbiz Entertainment and Gifts in Stittsville for 14 years), he’d suggest testing it in “a small market such as the City of Ottawa first.”

They’re confident it’ll work, Browne said. If everything blows up, they can back out and put Presto 2.0, which is in use now, back in place. They’ll have a full team of technical experts in Ottawa on that weekend in January to make sure that isn’t necessary, he promised.

The promised improvements come in several stages. Version 2.2 should make Ottawans’ Presto cards work for cash payments to Toronto-area transit systems pretty much right away. A little later in the winter, once OC Transpo is ready, the lag to get new passes and cash added to riders’ accounts should be shortened from 48 hours to as few as four.

But Coun. Stephen Blais spent minutes chasing Browne around, trying to get him to commit to doing eight more things OC Transpo wants after the system upgrade, from having Presto readers accept plain credit cards instead of only Presto cards to selling Presto-based day-passes for the transit system. When will we get these things? he wanted to know.

“The ability for us to determine exact dates at this point is not possible,” Browne said.

Although Ottawa has adopted the posture of an aggrieved customer sold an iffy system by a shady vendor, Manconi himself is on the board that governs the Presto system (along with managers of another dozen or so transit systems). Browne couldn’t commit to any features or fixes the board hasn’t approved, and it hasn’t yet approved any of the things Ottawa wants, a fact it took Blais ages to extract from him.

“We’ll be acting as a very strong advocate for the changes that Mr. Manconi has brought forward,” was as far as Browne would go. Probably, he hopes very much, by the end of 2014.

“I’m not sure what your strategy is around this, other than to piss me off,” Blais told him. And don’t bring any Metrolinx people to the transit commission who aren’t ready to answer questions, he advised Manconi.

He, in turn, acknowledged the many customer-service complaints that still dog the Presto system. “We have to wrap the customer experience around the card, not the other way around,” he said, meaning it has to be improved to put users’ convenience ahead of the expedient engineering that has typically ruled till now.

dreevely@ottawacitizen.com">dreevely@ottawacitizen.com

ottawacitizen.com/greaterottawa
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/ot...015/story.html

[rocketphish]

Some online service interruptions as Presto card upgrades begin Sunday

Ottawa Citizen January 4, 2014

OTTAWA — New Presto cards will not be available for purchase from the service’s website beginning Sunday until Jan. 12 as the service prepares for a website overhaul.

Cards will be available at OC Transpo service desks or through Presto’s call centre, 1-8-PRESTO-1-2-3 (1-877-378-6123)

Starting Jan. 10, Presto will begin merging its systems and websites in Ottawa, Toronto and Hamilton and will be offline until Jan. 13. Once the sites are integrated, riders will be able to use their Presto cards in all three regions.

During the upgrade, online services at prestocard.ca will be suspended. Services include: Loading your card online or by phone, accessing your account online, registering or activating cards and others.

Cards will continue to work on public transit during this time and clients can add funds or purchase new cards OC Transpo sales and info centres.

Customers are being urged to ensure they have enough funds to travel during the outage, or to add funds online by Jan. 8th.

Press here for more information.

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/So...509/story.html

[1overcosc]

PRESTO News -- load delay time has been greatly reduced; its now about 6 hours instead of 24-48 hours.

I had a good Presto glitch last week. I own a regular monthly pass, and I happened to take the #60 (visiting a friend in Kanata). I should have been charged an express top-up, but I wasn't. I got a free express ride, so I'm not complaining.

[1overcosc]

Metrolinx is now phasing out PRESTO expiry dates.

All Presto cards will continue to be valid after the expiry date for an infinite amount of time. However, once the 'expiry' date is passed, the card is no longer warrantied, and if it breaks, the replacement will not be free like it normally is.

New Presto cards now say "Warranty end date" instead of "Expiry date" to reflect this change.