Metrolinx fare inspectors briefly struggled to check if riders had paid with debit cards

On Tuesday, the Ford government unveiled a new way to pay on local buses and across its GO network but internally officials were warning it briefly didn’t work.

A series of senior government and transit officials, including associate minister of transportation Stan Cho and Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster, held at a photo opportunity in Brampton to tell riders debit cards could be used to tap instead of Presto cards.

Early on the same day, however, officials raised internal concerns: they had no way to check whether customers using debit cards had actually tapped on.

The issue stemmed from the slow rollout of a software update for handheld card readers used by fare inspectors, Metrolinx said. The patch had been updated by Wednesday, the day after the new feature was launched.

“There is a period of transition for software updates anytime we introduce new products,” a spokesperson told Global News. “Our Customer Protective Officers are able to inspect all payment methods including debit.”

Global News understands that a problem was raised by senior fare enforcement officials at Metrolinx, Ontario’s provincial transit agency responsible for running GO buses and trains, on Tuesday morning. They said their inspectors had no way to check if a debit card had actually been tapped.

The machines used to successfully check people had actually paid for their ride weren’t able to check if riders had tapped their debit card until after a software patch was installed.

Fare inspectors were told — at least for a brief period on Tuesday morning — not to issue any penalties to riders who claimed to have used their debit card.

Officers update their card machines at the start of their shifts. If the software was not installed when they began checking cards, their machines would be unable to assess if a debit card had been used to tap on.

The rotating nature of shift patterns means some machines were updated with the new capabilities later than others.

The delayed software could have proved to be a fly in the ointment for a policy that internally was planned to be a good news story for Metrolinx and the Ford government.

An internal communications plan created by Metrolinx, and seen by Global News, laid out an aim to generate positive news stories from the announcement.

One communication objective for the event stated that the announcement should create “at least five neutral to positive stories within two days of the announcement/photo op.”

Overall, Metrolinx’s document said it was aiming for 70 per cent of coverage to be neutral to positive.

The addition of debit card tap payments on Tuesday rolled out across GO Transit, along with several municipal transit agencies, including in Hamilton, Mississauga, Brampton, Burlington, Oakville, York Region and Durham Region.

The government said since it launched credit payment options in August 2022, PRESTO has reported a million card taps.

The province said it’s working with the Toronto Transit Commission to introduce both credit and debit payment options this summer.

— with files from The Canadian Press