TORONTO -- TTC monthly pass holders who stopped taking transit entirely at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March will begin receiving refunds on their PRESTO cards today but it could take months for everybody to be made whole.
The refund will see pro-rated credits issued for each day that monthly pass holders didn’t use their PRESTO cards between March 18 and the end of April.
The TTC says that once the credit shows up on a riders account, they will have to either tap their card on a PRESTO reader of at a fare vending machine in order to receive it.
"By providing a credit, we are ensuring that some of our most loyal transit customers are fairly reimbursed,” Mayor John Tory said in a press release announcing the formal start of the program. “This is the right thing to do and I am proud the TTC has worked with PRESTO to move this forward."
The TTC approved the refund program in June at a cost of $13 million but Tory told CP24 that it “took a while to work out the mechanics.”
While the credits will begin to show up on some PRESTO accounts beginning today, the TTC says that it could take until the end of November to process all credits “due to the volume of eligible customers.”
TTC ridership declined by as much as 80 per cent at the start of the pandemic.
