A change to the sound that Presto card readers make when a child pass is tapped appears to be associated with a drop in fraudulent use by adults on the TTC, data shows.
From the spring of 2019 to the fall of 2021 — with a break of about a year and a half during the COVID-19 pandemic — Presto child passes were used between 200,000 to 276,000 times every month on the TTC.
Historically, many adults have attempted to use a Presto child pass to avoid higher transit fees, and data indicates that fraud is still widespread. According to TTC rules, only a child under 12 years old can use the pass for free TTC travel.
In 2018, about 95 per cent of child pass use was by adults, a TTC fare enforcement audit found.
A year later, a 2019 city audit found 78 transit users, all adults, were caught using child passes on public transit, though the total fraudulent use appeared to be much larger than just those apprehended.
September 2021 was the peak of child pass usage in the city, when there were over 276,000 recorded instances on the TTC. Using the TTC's estimate that 95 per cent were fraudulent, that represents a revenue loss of between $616,000 and $865,000 for that month alone.
Children don't need a pass to use the TTC for free, but with the TTC's move to phase out collectors at subway stations in favour of electronic gates, they need some way of getting into the station. A child pass provides that. However, without a human fare collector, there is no consistent scrutiny and it's not difficult for adults to ride for free using child passes.
Transit blogger Steve Munro said much of the child pass fare evasion began when former mayor John Tory decided to make children’s TTC fare free.
Munro said the free transit for those under 12 “plus the need for children to have a pass to get into a subway station” is what triggered the fraudulent use problem.
Media, auditor attention led child pass use to nearly triple
Ironically, the problem was made far worse by an attempt to address the revenue loss in February 2019. At more or less the same time, the city's auditor and the media both drew attention to the growing problem of adults using free child passes on the TTC, and the lack of barriers for getting away with it.
"During our six weeks of audit observation on all three modes of transit covering many different times of the day on TTC, we did not come across any children aged 12 and under who were using the child Presto cards," auditor Beverly Romeo-Beehler wrote.
"We noted at times the passengers were carrying two Presto cards — an adult (or other appropriate concession) card that had not been tapped and was presented for inspection to the transit fare inspector, and a child card that was tapped and was also used at other times," she reported.
The media, for their part, drew attention to a black market in child passes operating openly on Kijiji. They met and confronted people offering them for sale.
Romeo-Beehler pointed to several elements that, working together, made child pass fraud both easy and attractive.
She said child passes offer unlimited free use of the TTC for up to seven years, depending on the child's age when the card is issued. Since child and adult passes look identical, and Presto machines behaved identically when the two card types were used, the passes were difficult to distinguish.
Child passes are given out with little oversight and in principle someone could obtain them for any number of real or imaginary children, Romeo-Beehler said. Distributors weren't required to maintain a database of purchasers and people getting child cards don't have to prove the card will go to a child or produce a child's ID.
Nothing changed in the short run, and — other than the sound Presto readers make when a child pass is used — nothing has changed to this day.
Still, the discussion of how easy it was to cheat the system had an unfortunate effect for the TTC: child pass use had nearly tripled by June of 2019, when the subject was prevalent in the media and among city officials.
"The auditor's report, in effect, was the advertisement saying, 'Come one, come all, here's how to ride the TTC for free,'" Munro said. "It was like running a commercial for the fraudsters."
What does the data show?
TorontoToday's analysis is based on about eight million lines of data released by Metrolinx under access-to-information laws.
Metrolinx initially resisted releasing the data, but was ordered to by Ontario's information and privacy commissioner.
TTC spokesperson Stuart Green said fraudulent child pass use fell in September 2021 when the Presto readers started using a different sound for the under-12 cards.
"We know that both the change to the light and sound had an impact in reducing fraudulent use of the child Presto card,” Green said. “Public feedback on social media indicated that customers responded more negatively to adults using the Child Presto card. It appears that people were more embarrassed to use the child Presto card because of the distinct sound and light that was on display."
Despite that, Green said today "the majority of (child pass) users are adults and not children."
Child passes are still sold on what amounts to an honour system.
On Thursday, a TorontoToday reporter bought a child pass at a Shopper's Drug Mart for an (in this case real) nine-year-old for a $4.05 administrative fee. The card is good for over three years of free use of the TTC. The only scrutiny involved stating the child's birth date to the cashier, who did not independently verify the child’s age.
The pass remains visually identical to an adult one that costs $3.35 per use.
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In Ottawa, OC Transpo issues child passes directly through the transit authority as a form of photo ID, with the child's name recorded and a picture. In Hamilton, libraries issue transit child passes directly to children who have a library card.
Suspected fraudulent TTC child pass usage is still taking place, though seemingly to a lesser degree than in years prior.
The data shows a significant drop in child pass use in the system at times when real children are unlikely to be using transit in significant numbers, though the problem appears to persist.
In 2021, between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. on Saturday, July 14 to Sunday, July 15, there were 385 child pass taps on the TTC, largely at downtown core stations including Dundas, Union, College and Osgoode. During the equivalent time period in 2024, there were 93 child passes used.
On Monday, Feb. 5, 2024, between the hours of 5:30 a.m. and 7:30 am — when many adult commuters head to work — there were 112 child pass taps. At the same time on an equivalent day in 2021, on Monday, Feb. 8, there were 362 recorded instances.
Should the TTC get rid of child passes entirely?
A TTC report this summer raised the idea of eliminating child passes but Munro said it would pose a problem for children using the subway.
Munro “guardedly” agreed with getting rid of the under 12 passes and said, "but then you have to deal with how the hell they get into subway stations.”
"The TTC has basically taken a decision saying, if you do not have a machine readable fare, even if it's free, you can't get into a subway station unless you ride in on a bus or a street car into a paid area,” he said.
Green said the TTC would like Metrolinx, which operates the Presto system, to make two changes to the child pass system. He proposed adding an annual expiry for child and youth cards and implementing time of day changes to restrict use when children are unlikely to be using the system.
Metrolinx did not provide answers to questions from TorontoToday about the TTC's two specific requests.
In a statement, a spokesperson said Metrolinx "continues to meet regularly with all transit agencies (including TTC) to explore new strategies to support them in their efforts to limit fare evasion on the network."
UPDATE: This story was updated to include a response from Metrolinx.
