Beginning on Monday, commuters will be able to purchase and reload their Presto cards at select Shopper’s Drug Mart locations across the city.
Inside one of these Shopper’s Drug Mart locations at King Street and Strachan Avenue, Ontario Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca made the announcement while reloading his own personal Presto Card.
“Starting today commuters will be able to buy, load and set child elementary and high school student and senior discounts on Presto cards at 10 Shopper’s Drug Marts locations across Toronto,” Del Duca said.
The Shopper’s Drug Mart locations include:
- Agincourt Mall - 2330 Kennedy Road, Toronto
- Eglinton and Dufferin - 1840 Eglinton Avenue West, Toronto
- Hudson’s Bay Centre - 20 Bloor Street East, Toronto
- King and Peter - 388 King Street West, Toronto
- King and Strachan - 901 King Street West, Toronto
- Queen and Carlaw - 970 Queen Street East, Toronto
- Queen and Bathurst - 524 Queen Street West, Unit A, Toronto
- Queen Street West - 1033 Queen Street West, Unit A, Toronto
- Weston and Lawrence - 1995 Weston Road, Toronto
- Westway Plaza - 1735 Kipling Avenue, Toronto
He said this implementation comes ahead of rolling out this program at additional Shopper’s Drug Mart locations across the GTA.
“The program will be rolled out more widely as the year progresses so more folks can take advantage of this program because building public transit, getting shovels in the ground is important but it’s not the whole story,” he said.
Over the past few years, the regional transportation agency Metrolinx has been working to roll out the Presto Card system on transit agencies across the GTHA, including the TTC, and in other parts of the province.
Alongside Del Duca, TTC Chair Josh Colle said this announcement comes amid the transit agency’s attempt to enhance the experience for customers as they work towards Presto Cards being their only form of payment.
“Today’s announcement about a retail partnership with Shopper’s Drug Mart is a great step in the right direction for Presto in Toronto and certainly support what we’re doing at the TTC to roll out our new fare payment,” Colle said.
Yet during this rollout the TTC has reported issues with the new system as a large amount of readers do not function properly.
Del Duca told CP24 on Monday that Metrolinx is aware of the persistent issues and are working towards making the system more reliable.
“Along the way there have been some challenges,” Del Duca said. “I would say today that I think we are in a much strong position with respect to the reliability of the system than we were even a few months ago, but we know that out work is not done yet.”
In addition to these Shopper’s Drug Mart locations, Presto Cards will still be available online, over the phone at TTC head office and at Gateway newsstands.
