06-24-2020, 03:24 PM
(06-23-2020, 09:22 PM)danbrotherston Wrote:(06-23-2020, 08:07 PM)taylortbb Wrote: Those are all issues that Presto had too. The Presto website is now, more than a decade later, not garbage. But it definitely started that way. TVMs not working, validators not working, etc are all problems that have happened with every Presto rollout. The only that hasn't is cash fares, and that's because Presto doesn't support cash fares, requiring agencies to instead run totally parallel cash payment systems with incompatible transfers. Which has the effect of making ridership and transfer tracking far more difficult, or impossible, for agencies using Presto.
Presto uses much of the same equipment we do, just with different software. If we're having hardware failures then Presto would have too.
Maybe, but none of those issues applied to TTC adopting Presto which only happened after those issues were ironed out, nor would they have applied to us. I'd have preferred if we had bought a system that had those issues fixed. I don't want to wait another 10 years for this bullshit to get fixed in our system. It is absurd, that with a completely standard system, we were unable to buy a working off the shelf solution, whether presto, or whatever.
I really think you're severely understating the number of issues that the TTC rollout specifically had. Yes, the website was good by then, but the TTC rollout of Presto was a total disaster with years of non-functional equipment. There were significant discussions about whether it was right for the TTC to be doing fare enforcement on streetcars when Presto validators were failing so consistently, and many vehicles were running without a single working validator. The TTC estimate of the amount of fare revenue they lost due to non-working validators is substantial.
I agree that government IT projects are terrible way too often, and that governments needs to fundamentally change how they purchase technology. I'm not defending the current situation as acceptable. But you seem to think that the failure is exclusively ours, when based on other cities it appears any other fare card wouldn't be any better.