It appears the rollout of the Presto card system on the TTC is over budget.
According to a report in the Toronto Star, as of March 31st, over $276 million had been spent on the project.
That's almost $22 million over the 2012 estimate.
There's still work to be done, including installing reload machines and adding card readers on buses and Wheel-Trans vehicles. The estimates also don't account for future costs of upgrading the system.
Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca told the paper that the cost overrun was reasonable and mainly due to the TTC changing the scope of the project. He said the TTC had decided to install card readers on older streetcars and replace subway turnstiles with automated fare gates.
However, the TTC's Brad Ross told the Star that there were always plans to put card readers on some of the older streetcars, but that delays in receiving the new streetcars from Bombardier prompted them to install more on the older fleet.
Mayor John Tory joined Moore in the Morning on NEWSTALK 1010. He says they'll be billing Bombardier for that portion.
"I'm not that happy with how Presto is going because we find 10-15% of the readers out of service," Tory says. "But we're going to keep working at it and get it implemented...We're way behind other cities in adopting this kind of technology."
The TTC plans to have the Presto system installed on all buses, streetcars and subway stations by the end of this year.