Metrolinx plans to start testing an open payment function on its Presto fare-card system as early as next year — but it could still be some time before TTC riders are able to use the long-awaited feature.

Open payment would allow transit users to pay their fares by tapping a contactless credit card, debit card or mobile phone on a Presto reader. It’s seen as key way to modernize transit systems by enabling passengers to pay for their rides without having to purchase specialized products such as tickets or fare cards.

Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency that owns Presto, has for years been promising to implement the feature but hasn’t provided a firm timetable for doing so. Now, the company says it plans to test the payment method on GO Transit buses next year.

Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster revealed the trial Monday at a press conference in Etobicoke with Mayor John Tory and Premier Doug Ford. The event was called to mark the city and provincial governments reaching a major transit agreement last week.

“We are very excited about an open payment trial that will start somewhere during 2020, that is going to start open payments on Presto,” Verster said in response to a reporter’s question about the fare card.

He defended Presto in the wake of fresh concerns raised by a city auditor general report released last month. It concluded oversight of the system is so lax it’s impossible to know how much fare revenue the TTC is losing as a result of malfunctioning Presto machines.

Verster said his agency is working with the city to address those issues, but argued transit riders have adopted Presto in large numbers and customer satisfaction is “exceptionally high.”

Yet he acknowledged the fare card risks becoming outdated. Open payment has been available on London, U.K.’s transit system since 2012, and was introduced on Vancouver’s TransLink system last year.

“We need to move the Presto product as it stands now into the new age,” Verster said.

“We are busy finalizing a way forward that would put Presto on your mobile device, allow for open transactions with credit cards on the system, and a couple of exciting features that would take Presto into the next generation.”

Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins clarified after the event that the agency plans to start installing Presto readers that are capable of supporting open payment on GO Transit buses later this month. But a software upgrade required to actually introduce open payment isn’t expected until some time in 2020, at which point the agency would launch a trial of the feature before rolling it out more widely.

Aikins couldn’t say when open payments could be available on the TTC.

“We have very exciting plans for modernizing Presto, and we’ve been actively sharing and discussing these plans with all of our transit agency partners, including the TTC. We are still working to finalize these plans and will have more information to share in the future,” she said.

In addition to GO and the TTC, Presto is used by nine other transit agencies in the GTHA and Ottawa.

The status of open payment is a sore point between Metrolinx and the TTC.

The fare-card agreement the TTC signed with the provincial agency in 2012 stipulated open payment would be included with Presto, but according to a TTC report released in June the timelines Metrolinx has provided for delivering the functionality “have consistently slipped.”

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TTC spokesperson Heather Brown said Monday the agency was unaware Metrolinx was planning an open payment trial.

“This is the first I’ve heard about this,” she said in an email, referring questions about it to Metrolinx.

But Brown reiterated the TTC sees open payment is a key requirement for the transit agency.

“Having open payment available to our customers, makes it even faster and easier for them to pay their fare ... Open payment has always been part of our master agreement and a priority for us to provide our customers,” she said.

Ben Spurr is a Toronto-based reporter covering transportation. Reach him by email at bspurr@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter: @BenSpurr

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