The days of fumbling through your pocket for a token before hopping on the streetcar could be numbered.

According to TTC CEO Andy Byford, the transit commission is accelerating its implementation of Presto to have the fare system’s hardware installed on all streetcars in 2015 and all busses by the summer of 2016.

The timeline is sped up from the TTC’s initial plan, which would have seen the hardware slowly installed on new streetcars as they were integrated into the network.

“We have said for a long time that the one big transformative program for the TTC, the real sign of TTC modernization, will be the rollout of the smart card. That’s already underway but what I have been discussing with Metrolinx is how we can speed up the program to get the whole of the TTC implemented,” Byford told CP24 ahead of a board meeting on Wednesday morning. “The original program was 2017 and we want to do that a year quicker. We are going to go all out to get this done by the end of 2016.”

The TTC signed an agreement to use Presto across its network in November 2012, but so far car readers have only been installed at 15 subway stations and on the three new streetcars that run along Spadina Avenue.

Speaking with CP24, Byford said there will be some “big hurdles” in acquiring the necessary equipment and installing it on the TTC’s 2,000 buses and 250 streetcars in time to meet the new timeline, but he said the TTC is working on a program to “expedite the rollout.”

“You don’t just bolt this equipment on. There is lots of work to be done in terms of getting the stations cabled in order to take the additional power that Presto will need and on individual vehicles there is wiring to do so the system can relay information back to the database that handles on the transaction,” he said. “It is a big task but what I am saying today is that we are working with Metrolinx to see if we can shave a year off that program. I really want to get Presto in. It will make a massive difference.”

The Presto system provides riders with a reloadable fare card that can then be used instead of a token or a cash fare.

The system has already been installed on GO Transit and seven other transit agencies in Ontario.

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