TTC to find out how much it’s losing from broken Presto readers

By Kevin Misener

The TTC has voted in favour of finding out exactly how much cash it’s losing from defective Presto card readers.

At any given time, the TTC estimates eight to nine per cent of Presto card readers don’t work — which means riders board for free.

Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong said the TTC is going to study exactly how much fare revenue the problems are costing.

“Presto is a lemon and we were forced to buy this lemon by the provincial government,” he said. “We’ve got to find out how much money we’re losing and try to recover that from either Presto or from Metrolinx or from the provincial government.”

Metrolinx said it has been rolling out software updates to try to make the Presto machines more reliable. Its goal is a 99-per-cent reliability rate.

Last fall, a Metrolinx audit found about 12 per cent of the readers on buses weren’t working. The failure rate was five per cent on streetcars.

“It’s not working properly and we’re losing money,” Minnan-Wong said. “It’s like running a business or a store where the cash register doesn’t work.”

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