03-08-2022, 04:45 PM
(03-08-2022, 01:10 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: Yes it did.
It involved giving all students a Presto card with a monthly pass loaded onto it in addition to their student pass. This was done in other cities with universities.
That system didn't exist when we chose EasyGo. Even now it barely exists, UoIT's u-pass works only via the Presto e-tickets app, and is impossible to load onto a Presto card (see https://registrar.ontariotechu.ca/fees-a.../index.php ). As far as I can tell, McMaster is the only university that lets you load a u-pass onto a physical Presto card.
(03-08-2022, 01:10 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: I'm not sure what was not "knowable" before...we KNEW we were advocating for better transit connections to Toronto. It is knowable from other systems around the world that fare card integration is a significant benefit.
You're comparing Presto today to EasyGo, that's what I mean by knowable at the time. At the time, Presto wouldn't commit to rolling out GRT before ION opened. That left a risk that ION would be ready to go, except there would be no fare system for it (as using the legacy fare system doesn't work with proof-of-payment). You can argue we could have just made ION free until Presto was ready to go, but that would certainly have significant cost, and would be politically problematic for the region. In the end ION got delayed, but again, that wasn't known at the time.
I'm not opposed to the argument we should be on Presto, but you present it like there was an obvious choice and the region was a bunch of idiots. The reality is it that there were significant trade-offs with either option, and not clear winner.