Toronto's leading mayoral candidates were split on the issue of a new technology for the TTC this week, while the commission tried to establish its move toward open-payment fare collection that has been months in the making.
Responding to a pledge by Rocco Rossi to make the reloadable Presto smart card the system's money-taker during his term as mayor, TTC Chair Adam Giambrone said he expected to sign a contract this fall to install devices that allow passengers to pay with credit or debit cards.Though not dismissing Presto, which already has card readers in seven TTC stations, Giambrone said the new open-payment method was better and called the Presto card "last-decade technology."George Smitherman, a mayoral candidate who had also pledged to convert the TTC to Presto by 2014, said the announcement by Giambrone - a city councillor not running for re-election - makes him "just glad that Councillor Giambrone's days are numbered." Giambrone, an early rival for the mayoralty who has since withdrawn, has been "stalling progress" for years at the TTC, which has not offered its full cooperation to a plan, backed by Toronto's neighbours and the province, to make Presto the basis of seamless travel across the Greater Toronto Area, charged Smitherman, a former provincial cabinet minister."To have him scupper this at the last minute is nothing short of frustrating," Smitherman added on Wednesday, July 21.Rossi said his position was unchanged, and that the TTC adopting its own fare-collection system "would effectively mean we're telling the rest of the region and the province to take a hike, right? Is that the message they want to send?"Being on its own with open-payment also means the city will not be able to share future costs for maintaining and upgrading the system, he said.Sarah Thomson, however, said open payment is a better choice because adopting Presto "requires setting up a unique banking system, a card processing system, and requires a huge amount of overhead to manage."In a statement, the candidate said most industries who need money-taking smart technology prefer to have branded credit cards assume the cost of processing, risk, and collection. That other candidates are choosing Presto, Thomson said, "is just another example of narrow political thinking." Rob Ford was less decisive about a payment method, though on Tuesday he said through spokesperson Adrienne Batra that Rossi sounds "like he's done his homework" on the Presto card.Ford added that "ramming through" a contract for open-payment readers this fall seems irresponsible and rushed. Also asked to comment, Joe Pantalone chose neither technology but called on the backers of both to show "more transparency" in their plans for introducing it throughout the TTC.The province's transit agency, Metrolinx, has a responsibility "to make the case for Presto by sharing the real costs and benefits with taxpayers and TTC riders," said Pantalone, adding the TTC has the same responsibility when it comes to open payment.Paul Korczak, a consultant who recently retired from the New York City transit system after seeing open payment installed there, signed a $1.3 million contract with the TTC in June.TTC spokesperson Brad Ross said the commission hopes to issue a request for proposals next month and to complete a second phase, determining whether to proceed with an open-payment system and examining how it could work together with the Presto card, by October, Ross said.