With just months to go before the TTC intends to shift its 1.8 million daily customers onto the Presto fare card system, the transit agency is struggling to get a software platform in place that has enough capacity to support the new payment method.

The problem lies with the Presto fare gates that the TTC has been installing in its subway stations. As the agency has rolled out more of them across the system, they’ve overloaded the capacity of the existing software platform, causing a glitch that means the TTC is often unable to detect when a gate fails.

TTC spokesperson Heather Brown said that has made it difficult for the agency to quickly fix gates that go out of service, meaning some of the devices remain out of commission for longer than they should.

“We do need the ability to monitor it more. I don’t know what the percentage of gates truly out of service (is),” she said, noting that the problem has “been a bit of an ongoing issue” since the TTC began replacing its old turnstiles with Presto fare gates in 2016.

Brown said that by its nature it was difficult to determine how many fare gates are affected by the problem.

She acknowledged the issue was “troubling” but said it wouldn’t affect the TTC’s switch to Presto. She noted that when gates are in service they have no problem processing transactions.

“I’m confident as we’re working very closely with the gate manufacturer that we’ll get this solved and we’ll be fully ready at the end of this year when everything is fully implemented over to Presto.”

The Presto system, which allows riders to pay their fares with the tap of a fare card, is owned and operated by Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency for the Toronto and Hamilton region.

Its deployment on the TTC is complex however.

While Metrolinx is responsible for Presto card readers on TTC buses and streetcars, as well as reload and fare vending devices throughout the Toronto transit system, the TTC owns the subway fare gates and is responsible for their operation.

The fare gates, which are costing the TTC $50 million to install, are supposed to operate using a separate back end software platform than other Presto devices in TTC stations, such as card reload machines and card vending machines.

But the TTC has yet to complete the separate software platform. Instead, the fare gates have been operating on the same platform that supports other Presto devices, which has overloaded the system.

Brown couldn’t say why the TTC didn’t ensure the separate software platform to support the fare gates was in place before the agency began to put them in.

The TTC is working with the fare gate manufacturer Scheidt & Bachmann to develop the new back-end system, Brown said, with the help of Metrolinx and Presto.

Councillor John Campbell, who sits on the TTC board, said he’d like an explanation as to why the TTC didn’t complete the separate software platform sooner.

“I don’t know why the supports weren’t put in place to make sure that that was up and running,” said Campbell (Ward 4, Etobicoke Centre).

“The TTC is bleeding millions in fare evasion,” and the problem is made worse by out-of-service Presto devices, he argued.

Campbell warned if the problem isn’t rectified soon the TTC might have to reconsider its timeline for switching over to Presto.

“Before they turn off the tap to the tokens and the tickets and the cash, they are going to have to make sure this is at 99 per cent efficiency,” he said.

The TTC plans to stop selling older fare media like tickets, tokens, and passes sometime in the middle of this year. It will stop accepting those forms of payment by the end of the year, by which time subway riders will be asked to use Presto cards.

Cash fare boxes on buses and streetcars will remain in place, although all of the vehicles have also been outfitted with Presto readers.

The fare gate installation is nearly complete, with all 75 TTC stations equipped with gates at a minimum of one entrance. Sixty-four stations have the gates at all entrances.

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The initial rollout of Presto devices on TTC buses and streetcars was plagued with technical problems, but Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins said the issues have been addressed and the devices on surface vehicles have availability rates above 99 per cent.

She said the agency is not concerned problems with the fare gates will affect the TTC’s full adoption of Presto in 2018.

“We’re really confident that both the TTC and the Metrolinx staff … are on top of everything and are troubleshooting everything.”

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