You can now buy and top up Presto cards at 10 Shoppers Drug Mart locations

Transit riders can now buy and top up Presto cards at 10 Shopper's Drug Mart locations in Toronto, thanks to a new deal between the drugstore giant and Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency responsible for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area. 

At present, the main purchase points for the fare cards are at GO or UP express stations, online, or at certain Gateway Newsstands inside the subway — but not at TTC-staffed booths in stations.

• Presto available at all TTC stations as of Friday morning
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At Monday's announcement, Minister of Transportation Steven Del Duca said the move will make using transit more convenient and attractive to people in the GTA.

"That's great news for all of us," said Del Duca.

The top up machines at Shoppers Drug Mart will also enable users to set student and senior discounts, a marked improvement from the previous system, which required that users head to GO stations or to a customer service centre at Davisville Station to have discounts set on their cards.

Presto cards can now be purchased at the following locations:

• 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

Del Duca said that the program will be "rolled out more widely as the year progresses." 

The Presto fare system has been plagued with issues in Toronto, including malfunctioning top-up machines and faulty card readers. The TTC logged 620 complaints about Presto in 2016.