Canada’s Largest Transit Agency Launches Open-Loop Payments Today

Julia Dorian

Canada’s largest public transit agency, the Toronto Transit Commission, or TTC, launched open-loop payments today on its buses, streetcars (trams) and four-line metro, after years of delays.

TTC was practically the last of the dozen transit agencies that accept the Toronto region’s dominant closed-loop card, Presto, to add an open-loop option. And even though TTC is pricing fares paid for with open loop the same as it does riders tapping Presto–unlike some other transit agencies in the Toronto area and elsewhere in Canada–the new service is unlikely to challenge Presto. The latter makes up 93% of rides for TTC. TTC delivered just under 578 million total rides in 2022, 48% of those on buses and 40% on the subway.

“Contactless is for casual riders and those who forgot (their Presto) cards,” a TTC spokesman told Mobility Payments.

One feature that bodes well for take-up of contactless for TTC is the fact the agency is accepting Canada’s domestic debit scheme, Interac, at the same time it is launching open-loop service for Visa- Mastercard- and American-branded cards and these cards in NFC wallets. Canadian consumers use Interac, especially the scheme’s Flash contactless cards, frequently for low-value transactions.

By contrast, Vancouver transit agency TransLink didn’t launch Interac acceptance until early this year–nearly five years after launching open loop. TransLink’s closed-loop Compass terminals had to be retrofitted to accept Interac cards and mobile wallet credentials. Because of this time lag and especially because TransLink prices open-loop fares more than 20% higher than closed-loop, TransLink riders tapped credit and debit cards and NFC wallets for only 2% of rides as of earlier this year.

Riders tapping credit and debit pay the same fares as they do with cash in Vancouver, at CA$3.15 (US$2.34), compared with CA$2.55 with Compass for zone 1. The difference between the cash price and closed-loop is much larger in Vancouver than in Toronto. In Toronto, the cash fare, at CA$3.35 (US$2.48) is only 1.5% higher than the Presto and open-loop payments fare.

Besides also accepting Visa- and Mastercard-branded credit and debit cards, along with American Express cards, TTC takes cards loaded into wallets connected with Apple Pay and Google Wallet. Visa and Mastercard debit is more expensive for transit agencies to accept than Interac in terms of transaction fees.

TTC like other Canadian agencies that accept open loop reserves the technology only for single rides. TTC concessionary discounts for seniors, youth over 12 and low-income people are all available on Presto closed-loop cards, but not with open loop. In addition, TTC offers two-day and daily passes on Presto only. The agency also offers monthly passes.

Open loop was promised years ago to TTC, and Metrolinx, backed by the Ontario government, had to upgrade 8,700 Presto card readers on TTC buses, trams and fare gates, to launch open loop.

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