Some OC Transpo riders say they have been left confused because of malfunctioning navigation screens on Ottawa’s Line 2 trains.
Miral Jama, a newcomer to Canada, says she relies heavily on the train for day-to-day travel. But one trip went seriously wrong when the onboard screens failed to display the correct information.
“I got lost and I missed my interview. I lost a job,” Jama said. “I was really naive when I came to this country, right? So, me not knowing how everything works, I just trusted the train.”
She said the screens showed the incorrect destination, sending her to the wrong end of the city.
“I cried that day.”
Jama says she worries about those who did not have internet access so they could double-check their routes.
“My mom, she doesn’t have a phone … What happens to her if the screen is not working?” she said. “We depend all the time on the screens … You have a train. Why not make it an accessible train?”
Line 2, which reopened in January as part of OC Transpo’s O-Train South extension, has faced ongoing issues with its onboard passenger information screens.
Some screens can display the wrong direction and destination. For instance, the screen might display a route heading north to Bayview while the train is southbound for Limebank.
OC Transpo said the problems were caused by “occasional communication losses between the train’s onboard computer and the screens,” according to a statement from a spokesperson, adding that these disruptions could lead to momentary displays of incorrect or outdated information and that the issues didn’t affect all vehicles in the same way.
The transit agency said it was working with TransitNEXT — the private-sector consortium that built the system — and its technology vendors to identify the root causes and had already deployed several software updates to improve stability.
Some fixes have already been implemented, and the work is ongoing and a part of an “iterative process” to enhance reliability across fleets, OC Transpo said.
The agency said it had received “minimal” complaints about the issue.
For some, like Joshua Tabensky, the glitch hasn’t posed much of a problem. “They haven’t really affected me at all,” he said, adding that he didn’t use the onboard screens to navigate.
But for others, like Varenkrish “Maxim” Baloomoody, the situation is confusing.
“My first reaction was I was scared. And then I was like, ‘Why do we never inform the public when they do stuff like that?’” Baloomoody said, recalling a time he boarded a train after seeing a screen that displayed the wrong line.
“I genuinely thought the lines were messed up,” he said, adding that the city needed to fix the issue if it wanted to offer “great” service.
“In any capital of any western country, you’re expecting that the government or federal facilities are a bit better than most other towns,” Baloomoody said.
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