A transit rant
This won't be about the TTC's mediocre customer service, their aging and too-insufficient infrastructure, or how there is ALWAYS a service delay each day during rush hour no matter where you are on the system. I get that the organization is broke, relies on stingy government subsidies to survive, and that development of the system has been studiously ignored for 30 years. I also get that customer service has improved slowly. This isn't about THOSE issues. It's about the NEW FUCKING STREETCARS & THEIR IMPOSSIBILITIES.
This is a fare collection unit on a new streetcar. You see, the new vehicles lock the driver away in a safe, tinted cubicle where s/he doesn't have to recognize that they are ferrying around human beings, and they certainly don't have to monitor fares or give out transfers as they used to. Maybe the drivers like this, but I just find it sad. Also, it's not efficient. Depending on the amount of customers getting on at a stop, the conductor maybe spends 30 seconds to a minute collecting fares and issuing paper transfers to those who need them. The collection unit isn't nearly as fast or easy to negotiate.
Firstly, the new system is skewed in favor of the PRESTO card (which is a reloadable fare card like a Starbucks card that you can tap on readers to pay a fare). The TTC wants to phase out their Metropass and tickets/tokens system - you can see that coming - but right now it's mostly millennials and frequent users who have opted in. That said, on any given day on any given streetcar, the PRESTO readers work about 60% of the time (and if you are transferring between a surface and subway route, you have to tap the card at each connection point, which you don't have to do with other fare options). Last night, I watched as riders on a west end streetcar entered, tapped their passes at one reader, then another, then another until they found one that worked. It was ridiculous. At a fare collection box, the riders tapped their cards and were faced with a loud beep and a message that their fare wasn't paid as well as a display of their current card balance onscreen. So, my question is: if the machine can see their balance, why can't it accept the fare???
So, there's that.
Another problem is the collection boxes in general. I use tokens because I'm not a frequent rider. If you use a token/tickets/cash, you need to obtain a transfer as "proof-of-payment" (for non-natives: fare inspections are rare but they usually happen when you least expect them, sorta like ninja attacks). It used to be -> you put your fare in the box next to the driver and s/he gave you a paper transfer - it took no time at all. NOW with the collection units, you have to specify the type of fare and then negotiate either a coin slot or a ticket reader. For some reason, the coin slot on the boxes tends to cup tokens just inside the slot so that they won't drop down to register as a paid fare AND you can't fetch them back with your fingers to try again. I've seen lots of people stare at the slot in worry - sometimes they try and ram their keys or a credit card into the slot to push the fare through. That actually happened on the car I was riding this morning 6 times in a 10 block trip. IF you manage to get through this MENSA test, the machine spits out the highly coveted transfer. But if you choose a cash fare option, the process gets more complicated. You select the cash option, and then a new screen pops up asking you WHICH cash option you want (child, adult, senior). If you're in a hurry or haven't used the system before, you probably start feeding money into the machine at this point, but because you haven't selected a fare rate, the machine doesn't count your money. When you stand there and realize you've missed a step, you press the CANCEL button to try again, but here's the kicker: THE MACHINE DOESN'T SPIT BACK THE MONEY YOU'VE JUST INSERTED. So, maybe you just paid $3 for nothing. Then you look around, unsure of what to do, and there's no human available to help you with this, and other riders are grumbling behind you because you've already spent 1 minute on a process that used to take 10 seconds. If you learn your lesson about the cash system and do the process correctly, you still have to deal with the wonky coin slot that not only steals tokens but quarters as well. Usually more credit card-stuffing ensues. This whole process is a nightmare for the visually impaired, seniors, or those who don't speak/read English well. AND it takes so much longer than when ONE HUMAN BEING handled all of it! Today, when the collection box didn't like my token and I cancelled the transaction to try again, it spat back 2 tokens and $3 in change. I have no idea why.
And I'm not gonna even go into how the seating layout of the new vehicles actually makes for less standing space or that the bendy connection bits between cars are a gyroscopic nightmare because the hand rails are attached to the main car structure, but people using them will be standing in THE ROTATING PORTION causing all sorts of stumbling and and spatial reorienting for every turn.
Basically, we paid through the nose for these things, they are 2 years late (thanks, Bombardier), and the amenities already don't work or are poorly designed. I really wish the TTC had demanded a live, real-world testing of the models before they signed off on them. If they crammed them full of people (old, blind, young, non-English speakers etc.) and watched them negotiate these hurdles, maybe they could've designed out the hurdles in the first place. Now, they are just ours to live with >:/
This is a fare collection unit on a new streetcar. You see, the new vehicles lock the driver away in a safe, tinted cubicle where s/he doesn't have to recognize that they are ferrying around human beings, and they certainly don't have to monitor fares or give out transfers as they used to. Maybe the drivers like this, but I just find it sad. Also, it's not efficient. Depending on the amount of customers getting on at a stop, the conductor maybe spends 30 seconds to a minute collecting fares and issuing paper transfers to those who need them. The collection unit isn't nearly as fast or easy to negotiate.
Firstly, the new system is skewed in favor of the PRESTO card (which is a reloadable fare card like a Starbucks card that you can tap on readers to pay a fare). The TTC wants to phase out their Metropass and tickets/tokens system - you can see that coming - but right now it's mostly millennials and frequent users who have opted in. That said, on any given day on any given streetcar, the PRESTO readers work about 60% of the time (and if you are transferring between a surface and subway route, you have to tap the card at each connection point, which you don't have to do with other fare options). Last night, I watched as riders on a west end streetcar entered, tapped their passes at one reader, then another, then another until they found one that worked. It was ridiculous. At a fare collection box, the riders tapped their cards and were faced with a loud beep and a message that their fare wasn't paid as well as a display of their current card balance onscreen. So, my question is: if the machine can see their balance, why can't it accept the fare???
So, there's that.
Another problem is the collection boxes in general. I use tokens because I'm not a frequent rider. If you use a token/tickets/cash, you need to obtain a transfer as "proof-of-payment" (for non-natives: fare inspections are rare but they usually happen when you least expect them, sorta like ninja attacks). It used to be -> you put your fare in the box next to the driver and s/he gave you a paper transfer - it took no time at all. NOW with the collection units, you have to specify the type of fare and then negotiate either a coin slot or a ticket reader. For some reason, the coin slot on the boxes tends to cup tokens just inside the slot so that they won't drop down to register as a paid fare AND you can't fetch them back with your fingers to try again. I've seen lots of people stare at the slot in worry - sometimes they try and ram their keys or a credit card into the slot to push the fare through. That actually happened on the car I was riding this morning 6 times in a 10 block trip. IF you manage to get through this MENSA test, the machine spits out the highly coveted transfer. But if you choose a cash fare option, the process gets more complicated. You select the cash option, and then a new screen pops up asking you WHICH cash option you want (child, adult, senior). If you're in a hurry or haven't used the system before, you probably start feeding money into the machine at this point, but because you haven't selected a fare rate, the machine doesn't count your money. When you stand there and realize you've missed a step, you press the CANCEL button to try again, but here's the kicker: THE MACHINE DOESN'T SPIT BACK THE MONEY YOU'VE JUST INSERTED. So, maybe you just paid $3 for nothing. Then you look around, unsure of what to do, and there's no human available to help you with this, and other riders are grumbling behind you because you've already spent 1 minute on a process that used to take 10 seconds. If you learn your lesson about the cash system and do the process correctly, you still have to deal with the wonky coin slot that not only steals tokens but quarters as well. Usually more credit card-stuffing ensues. This whole process is a nightmare for the visually impaired, seniors, or those who don't speak/read English well. AND it takes so much longer than when ONE HUMAN BEING handled all of it! Today, when the collection box didn't like my token and I cancelled the transaction to try again, it spat back 2 tokens and $3 in change. I have no idea why.
And I'm not gonna even go into how the seating layout of the new vehicles actually makes for less standing space or that the bendy connection bits between cars are a gyroscopic nightmare because the hand rails are attached to the main car structure, but people using them will be standing in THE ROTATING PORTION causing all sorts of stumbling and and spatial reorienting for every turn.
Basically, we paid through the nose for these things, they are 2 years late (thanks, Bombardier), and the amenities already don't work or are poorly designed. I really wish the TTC had demanded a live, real-world testing of the models before they signed off on them. If they crammed them full of people (old, blind, young, non-English speakers etc.) and watched them negotiate these hurdles, maybe they could've designed out the hurdles in the first place. Now, they are just ours to live with >:/