Grand River Transit

[danbrotherston]

I cannot find the citation, but I seem to recall that it was suggested that top up machines would be found fairly universally, not just at GRT facilities, I think supermarkets were explicitly mentioned.

I’ve given tickets to people asking for bus fare on the street, and I’ve seen others do the same. Some people I know do that who would not be comfortable giving cash for their own reasons.

Some households buy strips of tickets to be used by multiple members. I have a neighbour who asks another neighbour for a bus ticket when he takes one of his very seldom bus trips.

These kinds of things are not possible with a fare card.

No matter what, tickets will be more flexible than a pre-loaded card, even if you can preload at very many locations and with no minimum top-up, using any form of money. I still don’t think that’s a strong argument against moving away from tickets, but people of less means will be disadvantaged in some ways that should be mitigated where possible.

Question for anyone who might know: if an EasyGO card is loaded using cash at a machine, is there any requirement to associate a name or any other personal information with that card? For people who buy passes, can the pass be purchased at a kiosk and a receipt provided, again without a name or other information being associated with the card?

In some ways they are less flexible, although not to the degree you describe.  I believe a household would be able to share a farecard, although not for traveling together.

I don't know for sure, but I would be very surprised if one needed to provide any ID or personal information to get a card.  That would be pretty unusual for a transit system.

And in other ways, the fare cards are more flexible.  Right now, if you can't afford a strip of 10 tickets, or don't need 10 tickets, you must pay the higher cash fare.  With the fare card, you can pay the lower fare in smaller intervals.

I do agree, I have given people bus tickets before, and that would be much harder to do with a fare card.  There are certainly trade offs, but I believe the advantages still outweigh the costs, I would suspect, even for the less fortunate.