Grand River Transit

[danbrotherston]

I seem to have a memory that the real reason they didn’t pick Presto was because Presto wouldn’t support any specialized university pass program, just a general student discount. So the Region had a choice to make and abandon its pass programs (which all UW and WLU students are mandatorily required to participate as part of their student fees) that offer unlimited use or to go its own way. It just seems incredible to me that Presto couldn’t be convinced to build these kind of programs in, but assuming that fact was true, I do recognize that it was a hard choice because those pass programs do provide GRT with a sizeable and stable revenue stream (and I think students represent a uniquely large share of transit users in the Region compared to other municipalities). I still think they should have picked Presto and it’s extremely clear now that Presto was the better choice, but I don’t think it was as dumb a decision as people are making it out to be.

You'll notice that the statement that SF22 quotes explicitly mentions the U-Pass program: "such as handling a U-Pass program."

This does not change the fact that it is a completely bullshit excuse. The only feature that Presto doesn't support is tapping an actual UW student card. This would not prevent ANY of the following options:

1. Allow students to board with a UW student card WITHOUT tapping, as they did before.
2. Ship all students an actual Presto card with a "special" unlimited subscription on it.
3. Ship all students an actual Presto card with a "special" unlimited subscription on it and require them to ALSO carry a student card for photo ID.



And as Presto not been willing to guarantee they would be rolled out in time...well..that's just called honesty, because esolutions promised but didn't deliver that either.


Yes, people hated presto...but they were idiots if they thought our IT solution wouldn't have problems. But Waterloo is in good company....they're hardly the only Ontario city to have done something like that...London also did...with the same card from the same company...