Toronto transit riders can now load a TTC monthly pass onto their Presto fare cards.

According to notices quietly posted to the Presto and TTC websites Thursday morning,a limited number of June monthly passes — the equivalent of a TTC Metropass — can be purchased online and added to customers’ cards.

The development is a landmark for Presto, which will eventually become the primary form of payment on Toronto’s transit system. The monthly Metropass is the TTC’s main fare media, and making its equivalent available on the electronic fare card is a key part of transitioning away from older ways of paying.

“This is another positive milestone in the Presto rollout at the TTC,” said TTC spokesperson Heather Brown in an email.

“Throughout 2017 and 2018 we will gradually introduce other pass products, such as student and post-secondary student passes, on Presto as we transition away from tickets, tokens, and passes for the full adoption of Presto.”

The TTC Monthly Pass on Presto will cost the same as a Metropass—$146.25 for adults and $116.75 for seniors—and will go on sale eight days before the start of each month.

Like a Metropass, the Presto version will allow customers unlimited travel on the TTC for a month. According to the TTC, the only difference is that riders using the monthly Presto pass will have to tap on a fare card reader, while Metropass users are asked to show their card to fare collectors, drivers, and fare inspectors, or swipe it at a turnstile.

For the moment, the monthly pass product is only available via the Presto website, although physical cards can be purchased at Gateway newsstands in the subway system and at 10 Shoppers Drug Mart outlets in Toronto.

Roughly 2,000 adult and 1,000 senior passes are being made available for June. Brown said that limiting their number will give the TTC and Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency that owns the Presto system, “the opportunity to evaluate the customer experience.”

“This will ensure we can provide the best possible product once we roll it out to a wider audience,” she said.

The TTC expects to increase the number available over the course of 2017 and 2018.

Presto card readers were installed on all TTC buses and streetcars, and at one entrance of every subway station, at the end of 2016.

Presto users still make up a minority of the agency’s customers, however, and as of March, about 12 per cent of TTC trips were paid for with the electronic fare card.

The TTC plans to phase out older forms of payment like tokens, tickets, and physical Metropasses some time next year, although it has yet to set a firm date.

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Once the switch to Presto is complete, the fare card system is expected to save the TTC money by reducing fare collection costs. But its implementation on the transit system has not been trouble-free.

Last year many Presto devices suffered frequent technical problems. As of March 2016, the rollout on the TTC had cost Metrolinx $276.7 million. That was nearly $22-million more than the provincial agaency’s 2012 estimate of $255 million, with much of the work yet to be done.

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