A Toronto Transit Commission report says it is recommending a “fare capping” system over monthly passes.
“Fare capping is a solution that can be initiated in place of the existing monthly passes as it has become clear that they are no longer meeting customer needs,” the report said.
The report called “Advancing the 5-Year Fare Policy” provides recommendations for the TTC Board to consider.
It said fare capping offers customers free travel after a specific number of trips in a select time period, such as monthly. For adults it’s 48 trips per month and 40 trips per month for post-secondary.
The report said after it implemented a two-hour transfer window, the need for monthly passes doesn’t make sense any more for riders.
“Prior to the monthly pass being offered on PRESTO and the implementation of the two-hour transfer, the TTC’s former Metropass was very popular and had a high adoption rate across all customer groups, with 50% of customers using Metropasses as of late 2015,” the report read.
“After the migration to PRESTO, the benefit of making free discretionary trips was now covered by the two-hour transfer window. There was a decline in monthly pass sales because it was no longer beneficial to pay full price for a pass upfront, when customers had a better option to pay the PRESTO single fare and use the two-hour transfer window to make their discretionary trips. This option provided customers with the same benefits that the Metropass offered, but at a lower cost,” the report continued.
The report is scheduled to be reviewed by the TTC Board on Feb. 10 with approval in May.