Ontario Ministry of Transportation: Multimodal Fare Card System

Accenture Mobility Software Services helped the Ontario, Canada, Ministry of Transportation develop, deploy and operate a secure, multimodal fare card system for the region’s public transit. The new system eliminates waiting lines for riders while reducing the ministry's operating costs.

A total of 5.5 million people reside in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) in Canada. Metrolinx—an agency of the Government of Ontario—is responsible for managing the area’s transportation infrastructure and services.

Metrolinx was tasked with developing a seamless transportation system that moves people and goods efficiently, economically and in an environmentally sustainable way. The agency’s regional transportation plan outlined strategies to develop reliable, convenient and fast transit and less congested roads. One of these strategies involved introducing a secure, multimodal fare card system for the region’s public transit. Metrolinx called on Accenture to solve the problem.

Accenture was selected to design, develop, deploy and operate the seamless fare card system called PRESTO—introducing the system in a phased approach through 2011.

As prime systems integrator and project management lead, Accenture was responsible for:

• Design, development and implementation of a scalable, multi-supplier smart card system.
• Development of the solution architecture, based on the Accenture Fare Management Solution for eTicketing.
• Field testing, implementation and ongoing maintenance of equipment across multiple modes.
• Ongoing management and delivery of back-office services, infrastructure and systems operations services.
• Full lifecycle support for smart card transaction processing.

The PRESTO system represents a key component of the Ontario government's strategy by encouraging an increase in transit ridership and a reduction in the community’s reliance on automobiles.

Ultimately, the PRESTO system is expected to accommodate more than two million passengers each day. GTHA residents will benefit from changes such as no waiting in lines at ticket gates, high-quality, around-the-clock customer service channels and loyalty campaigns.

In addition, transit agencies will gain a highly flexible system, information about travel patterns, operating cost reductions and automatic calculation and distribution of the correct allocation of revenues.