The cost of installing the Presto fare card system on the TTC has exceeded initial budget estimates, the Star has learned, and the project is still not complete.

Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency in charge of the Presto program, says it doesn’t know how much the bill will eventually come to, and is declining to provide an estimate of final costs until an unspecified later date.

As of March 31, however, the agency had spent $276.7 million deploying Presto on the TTC, according to numbers provided by Metrolinx. That’s almost $22 million higher than the agency’s 2012 estimate of $255 million.

The $276.6-million figure doesn’t reflect work that has yet to be completed or was finished after March 31; those jobs include completing Presto deployment at all subway stations, installing additional self-serve reload machines and fare vending devices across the network, and rolling out fare card readers on all 1,900 TTC buses and 500 Wheel-Trans vehicles.

Also unaccounted for are the future cost of upgrading the Presto system — which currently enables riders to pay their fare with a tap of a prepaid card — to allow for direct payment using credit or debit cards, and the cost of migrating TTC passes onto Presto.

Steven Del Duca, minister of transportation for Ontario’s Liberal government, said the higher-than-expected cost was reasonable, and attributed it primarily to the TTC changing the scope of the project. He said the Toronto agency had opted to deploy Presto machines on its older streetcars and to replace its subway turnstiles with automated fare gates, which inflated the bill.

“It’s not a shock to me to hear that when a request is made to do something differently from the original proposed process that it would have an impact on cost. I think at the end of the day, it’s again most important that we get this fully deployed,” said Del Duca, adding that Metrolinx is “working closely” with the TTC to ensure the program is delivered successfully.

The TTC appeared to take issue with the suggestion that it was the source of any significant additional costs.

TTC spokesperson Brad Ross acknowledged that delays to the agency’s order for new Bombardier streetcars compelled it to put Presto readers on more of its older vehicles, but said there were always plans to put the devices on a portion of its aging fleet.

And while Metrolinx said the fare gates required costly alterations to plans for power and communications upgrades at stations, Ross said the TTC is paying for the gates’ installation and maintenance, and the impact of the gates on station infrastructure “is something the TTC and Metrolinx are continuing to review together and has not yet been resolved.”

“The TTC believes that the vast majority of work and costs that (Metrolinx) has undertaken are part of the original scope of the contract,” said Ross. “Any differences will be resolved through the process contained in the contract. We remain partners with an excellent working relationship with a common goal: to deliver Presto to all TTC vehicles and stations by the end of 2016.”

Metrolinx had been reluctant to reveal how much it is spending to put Presto on the TTC, with a spokesperson initially telling the Star that she couldn’t provide figures until the project was complete. After repeated inquiries, the agency agreed to reveal how much it had spent up until March.

Neither Metrolinx nor Del Duca would provide an estimate for how much the TTC deployment will cost once it’s completed. The TTC intends to have the fare card system implemented on all buses, streetcars and subway stations by the end of the year, and to phase out all other forms of payment in the second half of next year.

Del Duca said he was “absolutely committed” to releasing the final cost but that he couldn’t provide an estimate now because discussions with the TTC are ongoing and “costs are being refined.”

“As soon as we know what the final price tag will be, we’ll make that information public,” he said.

Michael Harris, MPP for Kitchener-Conestoga and the transportation critic for the Ontario PCs, called Presto a “costly government-backed fiasco.”

“This has been a disaster,” Harris said, “and frankly I think riders and taxpayers have lost confidence in (the Liberal government and Metrolinx’s) ability to properly execute such an important and integral system in Toronto.”

The NDP’s critic for urban transit accused Metrolinx of a “lack of transparency” that she described as “shocking.”

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“These are tax dollars they’re spending,” said Cheri DiNovo, MPP for Parkdale—High Park.

According to Metrolinx, the TTC’s investment in Presto was not included in the $276.7-million figure, which reflects only work the provincial agency has done. That includes the cost of custom software, construction and electrical work at some stations, and installing Presto hardware on some vehicles and subway stations.

The TTC’s entire streetcar fleet has had Presto readers since the end of last year, and more than two-thirds of the agency’s buses now have the machines. Roughly 40 of 69 subway stations accept Presto.

When the TTC agreed in principle in 2011 to sign up for Presto, the cost of implementing it on Toronto’s transit network was estimated at between $250 million and $300 million. By the time the deal was signed with Metrolinx one year later, that number had been revised to $255 million.

As part of the deal, the province agreed to cap the TTC’s capital spending on the fare card system at $47 million. The TTC has since agreed to spend an additional $50 million on the Presto fare gates, however. Ross said the TTC’s Presto spending remains on budget.

TTC and Metrolinx officials have said that implementing Presto is key to modernizing the region’s transit system, because it will allow passengers to pay to ride on any transit system in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area with a single card, and make fare collection more efficient.

Presto is now used by 11 transit agencies in the GTHA and Ottawa, including GO Transit, MiWay in Mississauga, and the Union Pearson Express.

But its deployment in Toronto has not been without problems. As previously reported by the Star, recent audits conducted by the TTC revealed that up to 12 per cent of Presto readers on buses and 6 per cent on streetcars weren’t working.

The TTC and Metrolinx have said the glitches are temporary and will be rectified by the time Presto is fully implemented.

In 2012, the Ontario auditor general found that the cost of implementing the fare card system across the GTHA had nearly tripled from its initial budget, to $700 million.

With files from Tess Kalinowski

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