Man Behind Toronto Transit's Push for 'Open Payment' Sticks to His Guns
The New York-based transit guru behind the Toronto Transit Commission's controversial move toward “open payment” says he believes the electronic fare system would cost Toronto “a small fraction” of the cost of adopting the province’s Presto smart card. (Toronto Star)
Paul Korczak’s words are sure to further infuriate Transportation Minister Kathleen Wynne, who on Friday warned the TTC it risks losing hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies if it doesn’t halt its open payment efforts and fully implement Presto.
She urged the TTC to scrap its plan to issue, in early August, a Korczak-developed request-for-proposal and called TTC chair Adam Giambrone’s touting of open payment “troubling and confusing” given that Ontario has already spent $200 million on a system with one card to get commuters into and around all the GTA transit systems.
Korczak, awarded a $1.3 million contract to lay groundwork for the next-generation system where riders pay with a tap of their debit or credit card on an electronic reader, said he doesn’t get mixed up in politics.