[URBAN NOTE] "Phase-out of TTC tokens worries advocates for the poor"

[rfmcdonald]

Toronto Star reporter Ben Spurr notes how Presto could hurt the poor.

The Presto fare card system is supposed to help modernize the TTC. But what’s being done to make sure it doesn’t leave the transit agency’s most vulnerable customers behind?

By the end of this year, the TTC plans to finish rolling out Presto readers across its entire network. Sometime in mid-2017, the agency intends to stop accepting all other fare media, including tokens and tickets.

That could mean big changes for dozens of drop-in centres, homeless shelters and other social service agencies that distribute thousands of TTC tokens to their marginalized clients each year.

According to Elis Ziegler, manager of the Toronto Drop-In Network, community agencies have been left in the dark about how they will provide transit support to clients once Presto is in place and tokens are eliminated.

“The token system as distributed by non-profits is challenging enough. The problem is that we don’t know what that replacement is going to be,” Ziegler said.