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Friday, January 27, 2012

2012 Presto Fare Calculator

This spreadsheet was designed one drunken night by my friend, "Uncle" after a raging debate we had on a train ride home about how the discount works with the Presto Card.
Uncle is an accountant. He does stuff like this for fun. I made it available to the public and since it's debut, it's been downloaded over 3,400 times. I should be charging for it.
Here's the updated version <-Click link, that takes into account the fare increase. The "calculator" shows you the discounts for your trips. You can't edit this file but plug in your numbers in the columns provided. You'll need Excel to use it.
The file will open up in Google Docs. Click the FILE button and scroll to where it says DOWNLOAD.
Oh, and just a note, I'm not a raging Presto fan but when the fares increase in February, paper monthly/10-ride pass holders will pay more than those who use the Presto card as our discount remains at 17.5% and your discount is only 15%.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'll still be using paper and paying more. A 2.5% difference is not enough for me to move from 1 interaction a month (buying a pass) to 40 (tap on/off) a month with Presto. Since I take both the GO bus (AM) and have a no set station on the train trip home (PM) I can't set a home station.

GO wants people to shift from doing things 12 times a year (buying monthly) to having to do almost 500 (tap on/offs) each year. Why more people are not up in arms is beyond me. One thing is for sure though, I bet that having to tap on/off 500 times a year will lead to at least a couple of honest mistakes by users. You can be the GO staff will be quick to ticket for these errors if they catch you and generate even more revenue.

C.J. Smith said...

I tap when I get on the bus. I tap when I get off.

I tap when I get on the train but I don't tap when I get off.

When I go home. I tap to get on the train. I don't tap when I get off.

I tap when I get on the bus. I tap when I get off. So that's six taps a day. I haven't lost any weight yet from all that work.

Seeing as if I had a pass, I still have to physically show that to the bus driver (four times daily) so now I'm just showing it to a machine. Nothing different there.

Tapping to get onto the train is no different than swiping a Metropass.

I really can't see the problem. I'm not saying this isn't an inconvenience for some. It's just not an inconvenience for me.

The passes are being phased out. Soon it will be Presto for all.

There is comfort in the laziness of the paper pass. And I do agree that GO should be forgiving at first but it takes only 30 days to develop a routine. I now just tap automatically. It's ingrained.

Squiggles said...

I am switching to PRESTO for March. I did think long and hard and some caluclations were done.

If I stuck with the passes, I would be paying $84 more a year. That is a lot of money for me. And with no improvements in service, I can't justify the $84 being wasted by GO, when I can do it myself on groceries.

The tapping thing will be weird. But as I sometimes take a bus home, I need to figure out how that works with the tapping. Good thing I have month to procrastinate first.

Shirker said...

@Squiggles, I'm in the same boat. While waiting in line this morning to purchase my last paper pass (*sniff*), I noticed a lot of people getting new Presto cards. I'm so dreading it.

I question how long the extra discount for card users will even last.

ty said...

They won't get rid of the discount. That would be stupid.

Squiggles said...

@TY: Please tell me you weren't being serious. Pretty please.

Because this is GO we are talking about. Anyway they can get more money for no improvements, they will.

Bicky said...

I am impressed with that spreadsheet. (Nicely done, Uncle!) Looks like I'll be switching back to Presto beginning in March. I'll buy my last paper pass for Feb.

Gads, after 20 years of just carrying the pass and not worrying about it, I'm bound to forget.

The extra 2.5% is better in my pocket than GO's.

Anonymous said...

I don't know why Presto can't have a "monthly pass" option where we just pay what we would for a monthly pass and don't have to tap on/off.
I hate having to tap when I'm running for the train and it's a pain in the butt to have to keep pulling the card out. With the pass I can stick it in my bag and leave it all month.
Also with the pass, I can bring a friend on the weekends for free. I bet that isn't an option with the Presto card

FRED said...

Yes. That was a "perk" that GO casually and quietly removed for those carrying Presto.
Check out CJ's graphic.

http://www.thiscrazytrain.com/2011/02/this-crazy-trains-presto-chronicles.html

Dan-1 said...

Shirker, think of it this way: GO gives you the full discount using Presto. GO's just charging less of a discount on paper passes as an incentive to get people to switch to Presto.

It's like giving you a discount on each ride on a 10-ride ticket over buying each ride separately at full fare: more incentive to buy the 10-ride.

That said, I'm keeping a 10-ride as backup for when GO accidentally retaps me on when I tap off while getting off the bus, and later locks my card because I didn't know it retapped me back on... *grumbles something about a 2-bit fare system*

Shirker said...

@Dan-1, what I was getting at is once the paper passes are completely phased out (according to Metrolinx, both 10-rides and monthly passes will be gone by 2013), I would not be surprised if the discount structure of the Presto card is reduced from 17.5%.

Even if they eliminated the discount completely, the vast majority of us are stuck with GO and have no viable alternatives. Metrolinx knows this.

Anonymous said...

How is this Presto going to work for taxes??? We aren't allowed to claim 10 rides, how are they goign to manage to allow us to use Presto Cards?

C.J. Smith said...

As long as you used your card twice daily for more than 16 days, you can claim.

This is all on the presto site, in the FAQs. Read, people. Read!

TomW said...

Minor sugegstion... you can calculate the 10-ride cost from the ride cost by using the formula =INT(H2*9.25*4)/4 ... and the montly pass by using the formala =INT(H2*34).

Anonymous said...

I know I'm a little late to the party here, but I'm having trouble figuring out which boxes I'm supposed to input values into.

C.J. Smith said...

Send me an email anonymous and I'll help you.