A couple of weeks ago, I saw a tweet that said that as of August 16, people could no longer buy Go Transit tickets at the ticket booth at the bus terminal. Now, you had to pay the driver in cash or Presto card. I thought that maybe the most sensible thing to do would be to get a Presto card. That way, I could check its balance online and top it up and when I would take a Go bus to see my brother, I could just go “boop” and pay for the ticket and that would be that. There’s nothing worse than fumbling with change on a bus while other people are trying to get on, at least for me. Also, I’ve occasionally taken the Go train to Toronto, and that might make those trips easier. Based on what I have read and learned since, I thought wrong, at least for folks living in a city where Presto isn’t the system used by local transit.
Here is my main problem with Presto. According to the Presto FAQ, when you add money to your Presto card via the site, either manually or by using their supposedly convenient auto-load service, it’s not just instantly available. In order for that money to become available, you have to tap your card on some Presto machine. Worse yet, if you don’t tap your card on a Presto machine within 30 days, the funds are returned to your account, at which point you have to phone Go Transit and ask them to put them back in the limbo box until you can get to a Presto machine. Judging from the massive sigh given by the fellow at Go that I spoke to, this happens a lot.
I wondered where there were Presto machines in Kitchener, since our city buses aren’t on Presto and I don’t use Go daily. According to the fellow on the phone at Go, there is only one place in all of Kitchener where you can just tap a balance-checker and activate your money, and that’s at the Kitchener train station. Sure, there are Presto machines on go buses, but at that point, you would actually have to be wanting to take the go bus. It’s as if they have assumed that \Presto machines are everywhere and so convenient that tapping your money into service is something you would be able to do without a second thought. No, Presto, you’re not there yet.
That’s my biggest problem, but I have a little side problem. Go Transit doesn’t let one person pay for two tickets. So I couldn’t do one boop and buy my ticket, and then boop it again for Steve’s to save two people fumbling for cards. Other bus services are fine with this, but not Go.
Also, since I haven’t used it yet, I have no idea how easy it will be to “tap on” and “tap off” and have confirmation that it happened since I’m blind and can’t just read the screen. Yes, I know I have Aira, but what if I have connection troubles or they have trouble reading the screen quickly enough, so it times out? I would assume this tapping business has to happen quickly, especially the tapping off bit. I know when my friend was doing the tapping, there were lots of boops and songs and more boops, so it didn’t feel like one quick tap and you’re done. Most importantly, if you don’t tap when you’re getting off, you end up paying for a trip down the whole line, so I need to know it worked. I have hope that it’s accessible, since there is a braille P on the upper right corner of the card, so they at least kinda sorta thought of us, but companies love putting braille on bank machines and then forgetting that the screen is the most important part, so a single p on a card is no guarantee.
So I got a Presto card in an attempt to make things more convenient for me, and it may be the most inconvenient piece of plastic I own. Way to go, me.
Oh, and here’s an aside to the GRT ticket agent who sold it to me. When I asked what the number was on the card so I would know how to fill it online, “There isn’t one” isn’t the correct answer. In fact, there are 20 of them, a 17-digit card number and a 3-digit security code. Thank god for Aira getting me out of that jam.
Hopefully, if we ever get our Ion Light Rail system going, they’ll use Presto and that will solve the whole problem, but it seems nobody knows what the payment system will be, and nobody knows when we’ll have a light rail system. So until then, I’m going to be visiting the Kitchener Via/Go station once a month for no reason. That is not my vision of “Presto!”