I hadn't really been paying much attention to this supposed card of the future, appropriately called "
Presto", as in "presto", your money's gone. Ha ha. No? Sorry.
I understand change isn't easy and automation tends to put people out of work, but paper passes aren't the best method anymore, and never really were. If you lose your paper, flat-fee, monthly GO pass, the only hope in hell you have for recovering it is a shout out in a commuter newspaper and the kindness of others to bring it to the Lost and Found at Union Station. Balls, right?
I've never lost a pass but I did get one wet when it fell into a puddle one crazy morning at the first of the month. It was still fresh from the ticket booth and I was in the process of putting it into a zipped compartment of my satchel when it slipped from my fingers. It didn't dry well and resulted in a glare of disgust when I had to present it for inspection one evening to a GO transit inspector, who lectured me on "proper pass handling" and said "perhaps I need to carry mine in a Ziploc bag". True story. Perhaps I should be riding the short bus. With a helmet - seeing as I lack the skill needed to carry a monthly pass.
If you lose or have your Presto card stolen, your balance is protected and transferred to a new card. That's fantastic.
Throughout January stood the two Presto dudes with their colour pamphlet peddling the card to those boarding at Oshawa. Jill and I decided to figure out how the card calculates fare. The pamphlet didn't help. I can't make change from a dollar let alone figure out what 87.5% of an adult one-way fare is, let alone calculate how the fare is deducted when the card is used.
Jill and I expressed our confusion to another train buddy of ours, affectionately known as Uncle. Uncle created an Excel spreadsheet for us so we could plug in the values to view how the discounts work.
For me, the best feature of this card is the fact that I can reload online, anytime. No more schlepping to the station at 11 pm at night on the last day of the month so I can avoid the 30-minute line up the next day (and miss the train). Why I can never remember to buy my pass when I am at the station only proves how focused I am at just getting off the train and getting the hell home. On a short bus. With my helmet.
GO Transit hasn't implemented a Presto fare calculator on their website and this is a huge customer service oversight. People have to understand a product to use it effectively or at least understand how it offers a discount as opposed to full fare.
UPDATE (based on comments below)As Dan pointed out, Presto will soon replace the current paper-pass method, so it has to be comparable, and it does work like a monthly pass
assuming you go to work everyday for the full working month.
And as Kary pointed out, rather than purchasing a monthly pass at a flat fee, Presto also takes into account:
a) sick days
b) vacation days
Therefore, you only pay for rides you actually take and not for the two weeks where you didn't go to work, but paid for the fare anyway through a flat monthly pass amount, because you contracted the plague (like me in December) and paid $272 for 14 days of travel (losing $41 in fare that does not carry over).
I hate paying for something I didn't use.
Download the Presto Fare Calculator spreadsheet
(Updated for 2012). Key in the values where specified.