HSR is ending all paper tickets and bus passes, switching exclusively to Presto

Local transit riders should be prepared to ‘go green’ later this year, as the Hamilton Street Railway (HSR) has announced that they will be scrapping all paper tickets and printed bus passes in favour of a Presto-forward future.

This comes off a plan announced by the HSR back in February of this year; one with the goal of increasing the number of Presto users in Hamilton to at least 80 per cent of all local transit riders.

Hamilton city council voted in favour of eliminating paper tickets and HSR bus passes as methods of fare payment, encouraging Hamilton’s public transit users to make the exclusive switch to Presto.

HSR is phasing out paper tickets & paper monthly passes. You can buy and use a paper monthly pass until Oct 2020, buy tickets until Oct 31 2020 & use them until Dec 31 2020. PRESTO is a quick & easy alternative to paper tickets & paper passes. https://t.co/cQiz2fIN1Y pic.twitter.com/yf97Xdaf9A

— Hamilton Street Railway (@hsr) July 22, 2020

Full installation of new equipment is set to be completed by this September. Then, on October 31st of this year, the city will stop producing paper tickets and bus passes entirely, and HSR buses will stop accepting them as a valid method of fare payment after December 31st.

For senior Hamiltonians above the age of 80 who receive their Golden Age pass, the city will provide one-time, free-use Presto Cards that will allow those residents unlimited free travel on all HSR transit.

It remains to be seen how this move will go over with some of Hamilton’s transit users; particularly those for whom a switch to Presto may be more inaccessible, whether it’s the barrier of a lack of access to a computer for card reloading, or the upfront cost of purchasing a Presto Card in the first place.

Lead image courtesy of @hsr

Share post

Tags

• bus
• city
• fare payment
• Hamilton
• hamilton street railway
• HamOnt
• hsr
• PRESTO
• public transit
• transit
• Transportation