The Toronto Star reports that implementing Presto across the GTA has cost taxpayers nearly $700 million, way more than the $250 million originally thought.
Of course, the Liberal government and Metrolinx offer up a myriad of excuses but I think Progressive Conservative transportation critic Frank Klees said it best. He called Presto a "boondoggle and scandal".
Presto has proven to be what everyone predicted - a financial disaster that oversold itself. The auditor general's report explains why.
"Presto: The Lies, the Drugs, the Sex, the Regret. Story at 6pm Friday night, stay tuned".
ReplyDeleteI'm going to go out a limb here and say the Province was too wishy-washy. It should have said "this is the system, this is how it will work" rather than trying to squash all the existing systems' features in. That would have saved money.
ReplyDelete...and twenty years ago it was up and running in Seoul and Tokyo when I was there - that's Ontario all over - late, overbudget, and not really working.
ReplyDeleteI will admit that I have been experiencing "one of those weeks" and riding the GO train has become unbearable: people who treat quads like their living rooms, who need to invest in Odour Eaters, learn to use a kleenex, perfume instead of shower, etc.
ReplyDeleteThen there was the fare check yesterday morning. Not a problem until you realise that the checker assumed that everyone is using Presto. And showed a little grump when his machine was waved away and a person showed him the monthly pass. This created more work than listening for a beep.
With this in mind, I had to read the article twice before it really sunk in that yet again, we have been screwed over and now we need to pay for their mistakes. All of them. Because they didn't learn from the previous boondoggles.
Apparently, Accenture needed to NOT create something from scratch (trying to please all people all of the time) and instead chatted with the company that created the fare card for NYC and London.
Would have saved TONs of money and frustration. And now the bad will from the forcing of people onto the badly tested and created system. I know I am not looking forward to tax time when I have to sit down with the calculator and do a TON of math to figure out how much I can claim instead of lining up 12 passes.
I don't get all the Presto hate. I use it twice a day, 5 days a week, to go between Port Credit and Union Station and the only time I've ever had a problem was when I'd forgotten to refill the card, went negative and the online refill didn't take effect until I actually visited a ticket booth.
ReplyDeleteAs for the over-budget boondoggle, that's par for the course for any government-implemented scheme. I'm not surprised anymore.
Can the province of Ontario do anything right. In fact, I dont know any other farecard system in the world that has these "frivilous" rules like register in 24 hours, use balance in 7 days etc.....
ReplyDeleteI love how I've been inundated with Metrolinx ads on TV since the auditor general's report came out (timing could be a co-winky-dink) - all touting how great the transportation system is becoming and all the changes that are happening. Wonder how much they cost.
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