Grand River Transit

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For the Laurier platform: It's likely some critical building component is on backorder, or the contractor got redirected somewhere.

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Grand River Transit has a new mascot: Ryder (GRT Blog)

He even has a cute YouTube reveal

Does anyone recall if Kitchener Transit or Cambridge Transit had mascots pre-merger? Have there been other mascots post-merger?

[bravado]

Grand River Transit has a new mascot: Ryder (GRT Blog)

He even has a cute YouTube reveal

Does anyone recall if Kitchener Transit or Cambridge Transit had mascots pre-merger? Have there been other mascots post-merger?

They should cover it with ad wraps

[KevinL]

KT had an anthropomorphic bus called Bumper; he stuck around at GRT a bit after the merger but has been long gone.

Ryder is quite the story, as the lost rabbit stuffie was found almost 2 years ago and became the staff's internal mascot; appearances on social media led them to go all the way and make a human-size version.

[ac3r]

In b4 a little girl remembers it was her bunny and we have to find a new mascot. :'P

[Rainrider22]

After my dealing with GRT yesterday, I would hazard a guess they would say "finders keepers, loosers weepers"....

My 14 yr old daughter went to get on the bus yesterday after school, she tapped her card and it didn't have enough money for fare. She calls me and I immediately added more money. I also added the auto load feature so this doesn't happen again. I text her and tell her to jump on the next bus. She does and it didn't work. My daughter is a rule follower so she gets off again and calls me crying. I sent her a screen shot of the paid receipt for the fare, I explained to her to try the next bus and tell the driver her dad added money and here is the receipt for it. In the mean time, I will call Customer Service. What a joke that was. I explained the situation, they said oh, it takes 24 to 48 hours to load onto the card, that's just the way the system is. I explained that "The System" had no problem taking my money from Visa immediately, so there fore I should be able to utilize a service for which I have paid. She says, sorry, it doesn't work like that. I say what is the work around. She says nothing. I explain that I work out of town, my wife works with patients and cant just get up and leave so we need to figure something out. I ask for a supervisor, she says no supervisor, I ask for the manger, she says no manager. I say, how many people working around you right now (3:15pm on a Wed), She say approx 8. I say so 8 employees working in a government office and no supervision for accountability and safety of the regions employees.... Silence. I say or do you mean the manager and the supervisor went out for a Christmas lunch, or they are both doing personal business on company time ? again silence. I ask for the director of the area, she say she doesn't know who it is. I say fine. Call your dispatch and tell them there will be a cute 14 year old girl at the particular stop and time trying to get on the bus, please tell the driver to let her on as a courtesy. She says no I cant do that. Just then my daughter texted me to say that she got on the bus. She did what I asked her too and the driver was super kind and polite and said absolutely you can ride.... So at least the boots on the ground people are able to make reasonable decisions, but the people in "Customer Service" not so much... but what do you want when they have absentee leaders...
Sorry, but that was my first experience with GRT management and it was horrible.. "That's the way the system works"... well your system is fucked. In todays technology everything up dates as soon old visa takes the charge... How about looking into new technology, pair with GO Transit passes. Create an app that uploads immediately and you just tap your phone... Too many people just doing the same old the same old way. I bet the people in Customer Service don't even use transit......then there is that !!!!

[ac3r]

I believe if you added money to the card online, you need to wait until the buses return to the depot for it to appear. Reason being that the buses need to download the most recent data for every card that's in use as they don't have internet onboard to immediately see any changes. Edit: That wait usually takes 24 hours minimum, by the way, since each bus has to go back to the depot to update, perform maintenance and get cleaned. It's super annoying.

That may have changed, but I believe that's how it works.

[KevinL]

ac3r is indeed correct, there's no way to live-update a card from online. This is why I take care to have either enough change, or a spare card with a small balance, on me in case my usual card has an issue.

GRT is now behind the ball on the advancements Presto has done; on many agencies including GO and the TTC, you can now tap with any contactless payment method; credit, debit, Apple Pay, etc. Much more flexible.

[bravado]

Makes you wonder why we have the highest fares with amateur stuff like that?

[Rainrider22]

I understand now how their system works, so what your saying is it is antiquated !!! And deserving of updating if you truly want to improve the customer service. But then again, that means the people who design and implement the system would need to actually use it to understand the customers concerns and frustrations... BTW, I just checked my daughters card, and the card itself is still not showing the value of money a topped it up with. So it isn't just the bus reader updating when the bus returns, the actual card hasn't updated. So if she tried to use it now, it wont work (24 hours later). Her card should at least be updated immediately with funds. I get that the card my not show all the transactions right away for debiting, but crediting ? That comes from the website which again, took my money right away.

And that still doesn't speak to the lack of customer service from the Customer Service area... Again, the driver had the ability to remedy the situation...

[neonjoe]

Whenever the contract ends with this payment provider we need to move Presto...
Even it's not the best, but their card can be reloaded immediately from the app if you use your phone's NFC with the card to reload it.
This is a limitation of stored value cards....

[bravado]

I get what you’re all saying, but what if a regional manager or councillor wants to keep their weird little fiefdom come renewal time?

[ac3r]

Presto is way better if not flawed in its own way. I remember complaining about our card system on this forum and nobody agreed and said that Pesto is inferior. It's not. Ours is. It's the Alibaba version of transit payment cards.

[coriander]

The fragmentation in transit fare cards in Ontario is really kind of annoying, especially when the interconnected Golden Horseshoe is moving towards not just a common farecard but full fare integration. Meanwhile, all the other cities need their own special system. From Waterloo and looking to take the bus in Guelph? Better luck next time! Live in Brantford and want to tap on in Cambridge? Too bad! The entire GGH should really have a common system. Especially if Presto's already in use in Ottawa.

[tomh009]

ac3r is indeed correct, there's no way to live-update a card from online. This is why I take care to have either enough change, or a spare card with a small balance, on me in case my usual card has an issue.

GRT is now behind the ball on the advancements Presto has done; on many agencies including GO and the TTC, you can now tap with any contactless payment method; credit, debit, Apple Pay, etc. Much more flexible.

Those payment systems won't work without an Internet connection, either.

Rainrider's daughter wouldn't have had problems were the GRT buses equipped with Internet connections. Regardless of the payment system, this is really something that GRT will need to implement in the near future.