Last month Winnipeg Transit introduced a refillable electronic fare card system. This month they are introducing a token which will replace the current tickets for single ride fares.

Transit consulted with various organizations and social service agencies and found out that tickets were being given out to people with special needs and that a strictly card based system would be difficult for some people to deal with.

Although transit will be accepting both tokens and tickets right now don’t expect that to last past the new year. Transit is expected to phase out the tickets later this year after giving people the opportunity to swap existing tickets for tokens.

Tokens are expected to have a life of over 20 years. The roughly toonie sized coin was produced at the Mint in Winnipeg for a cost of just under $400,000.

-News4 Staff-