Here's what's been breaking OC Transpo fare readers

Here's what's been breaking OC Transpo fare readers

Recent software issues have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost fare revenue

OC Transpo says recent technical problems that took fare readers on buses out of service have cost the system at least $690,000.

The information came in a report to council's transit committee after Alta Vista Coun. Marty Carr asked for information and an explanation for what's been going wrong with the red oval card readers at bus entrances.

There are about 1,600 fare readers on buses and Para Transpo vehicles.

OC Transpo said they were working about 98 per cent of the time from January 2025 until June 2026. All told, there were 3,188 reports of problematic fare readers during that period.

Carr asked specifically how much that cost. OC Transpo couldn't give a precise number, but said it was somewhere between $690,000 and $960,000 in lost fare revenue over those 18 months.

Most of the losses came in February, March and April 2026, when fare reader reliability fell to 93.5 per cent.

OC Transpo blamed new software as it worked with its contractor and the provincial agency Metrolinx on upgrades.

"At that time, unfortunately, a series of technical problems caused an unprecedented number of fare devices to go out of service," it said.

OC Transpo said technicians reviewed about 300 fare readers and reinstalled software, resolving that particular issue.

Then there was a separate defect early this year that OC Transpo referred to as a "software bug" that could temporarily disable the readers.

Finding the cause was "challenging," according to the report, but an extended investigation showed in June that repeated rapid taps of U-Pass cards were the culprit and the defect was soon solved.

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Pat Scrimgeour, OC Transpo's director of transit customer systems and planning, told councillors at a finance and corporate services committee meeting on Tuesday that the reliability of the fare readers has since returned to normal.

"Those fare devices have all been repaired," he said. "Reliability of those devices is quite high right now."

That certainly doesn't mean perfection: OC Transpo said in its report there are still some 4G connectivity problems.

It said it's working on a new procedure that would see it hold buses in the garage if they don't have a working reader, but they'll only do that once more new buses arrive and bus fleet availability is high enough.

It's also looking to recover the lost fare revenue from the software update from Metrolinx.

Arthur White-Crummey is the municipal affairs reporter at CBC Ottawa. He grew up in Ottawa, spent years in Saskatchewan covering the courts, city hall and the provincial legislature, before moving back to his hometown. You can reach him at arthur.white-crummey@cbc.ca