Days of paper bus tickets and passes in Hamilton may be numbered

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Published February 4, 2020 at 5:52 pm

By the end of 2020, Hamilton Street Railway (HSR) riders may no longer need to use paper tickets or monthly bus passes.

By the end of 2020, Hamilton Street Railway (HSR) riders may no longer need to use paper tickets or monthly bus passes.

At Monday’s (Feb. 3) Public Works meeting, committee members received a presentation on the city’s adoption of the PRESTO fare system and pending council approval, PRESTO will be a system-wide reality by the end of the year.

As it stands, 53 per cent of HSR riders are already using the tap payment system, according to the presentation by Nancy Purser, the manager of transit support services.

The move to the new system is part of an agreement between the municipality and Metrolinx signed in 2018, whereby Hamilton will qualify to receive $11 million in Gas Tax Funding by adopting the Presto system.

The operating agreement with PRESTO requires that the HSR achieves 80 per cent adoption one year after the new equipment is installed on the buses. The city is required to pay a nine per cent commission on 80 per cent of the transit system’s revenues.

The equipment installation is expected to be completed by the end of September this year.

This means that the city needs to work towards eliminating “legacy media,” from the system to meet that 80 per cent target. Purser said that they will be tackling the issue in phases, starting with educating ridership and slowly phasing out the availability of paper tickets.

Cash will still be accepted even when PRESTO is system-wide.

Pending council approval, traditional HST tickets and passes will no longer be available for purchase as of June 1, 2020, to the approximately 2,500 adult and 700 student pass users that use them, a transit staff report from Feb. 3, states.

Approximately 100 vendors across Hamilton will be affected by the transition. Ticket and pass sellers have traditionally received commissions from the city for selling them.

If the move to eliminate paper tickets and passes is delayed, the city’s obligation to pay the nine per cent commission to PRESTO is still in effect and will essentially mean the city is paying for services “not rendered,” the staff report says.

Some councillors on Public Works seemed uncomfortable with the optics of the Presto adoption in Hamilton.

Councillor Chad Collins said he felt “disturbed” by the province’s tactics and considered the agreement with Presto to be a “forced marriage.”

“[Our] arm is being twisted to adopt this,” he said.

Tom Jackson, the councillor for Ward 6, shared Collins’ reservations and raised further concerns for holders of the HSR’s Golden Age Pass. These pass holders are 80-plus years old and there is no fee for the pass and they ride the HSR system for free.

Jackson’s concern was that even though they can still ride the HSR for free, they were obligated to pay the one-time $6 fee for a Presto card when previously there was no fee. This is money, he feels, might become a burden for those on a fixed income.

A number of councillors also spoke to the TTC’s seemingly troubled adoption of the PRESTO system.

Purser, who admitted not knowing enough about Toronto’s Presto program, said that the software used by the TTC is different than what Hamilton is and will be using.

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