OC Transpo lost an estimated $690,000 to $960,000 in revenue due to fare machine failures on OC Transpo buses and Para Transpo vehicles over an 18-month period, according to the transit service. Alta Vista Coun. Marty Carr asked OC Transpo for information on non-operational fare machines in June, saying there have been “numerous reports of broken fare machines” on buses and Para Transpo vehicles. There are approximately 1,600 bus smartcard readers installed on OC Transpo buses and the Para Transpo minibus fleet, with OC Transpo retaining an outside vendor to supply fare equipment and maintenance services. The smartcard readers accept Presto cards, credit and debit cards through the O-Payment System, U-Pass cards for post-secondary students, QR codes used for bus transfers and single-ride tickets, and specialized cards such as OC Transpo employee cards. In response to Carr’s inquiry, OC Transpo say the average availability of the fare reader at the front door of buses was 98.1 per cent between January 2025 and July 2026. However, staff say availability dropped to 93.5 per cent between February and April 2026 during an issue following an upgrade to the Metrolinx Presto system. “In addition to ongoing monitoring, staff conducted field testing before and after deployment of the recent software fix for the known smartcard reader issue,” staff said. “The testing identified a failure rate of 4.7 per cent prior to deployment of the fix and 2.6 per cent following deployment, indicating an improvement in reliability.” OC Transpo made 3,188 reports to the fare machine vendor for issues with the smartcard reader between January 2025 and June 2026, and repairs and replacement of the devices is included in the service contract. “The resolution time can range from the same day to a few days, primarily due to buses being unavailable or based on prioritization of buses with a front door reader only,” staff said. “The City’s contract with the vendor provides for technicians to be available at times when buses are most likely to be in the garage, but buses are not held back from service for fare reader-related issues, so technicians may not be able to access an affected vehicle immediately, which can delay repairs until the bus becomes available.” OC Transpo estimates it lost between $690,000 and $960,000 in fare revenue due to issues with the fare system over the 18-month period. “Of this amount, between $460,000 and $620,000 was during the time of the Metrolinx Presto upgrade and the lower fare reader availability,” staff said. “Staff have ensured that Metrolinx are aware of this lost revenue, directly tied to their upgrade project. Staff have begun discussions with Metrolinx and are pursuing means of recouping lost revenues.” The lost revenue comes as OC Transpo faces a $12.3 million deficit this year due to lower ridership. Problems with fare readers In February 2026, Metrolinx and the city deployed new software for the fare readers to make OC Transpo’s devices compatible with the new account-based Presto system. “At that time, unfortunately, a series of technical problems caused an unprecedented number of fare devices to go out of service,” OC Transpo said. “Approximately 300 smartcard readers were reviewed by technicians from the City’s vendor, and the software was reinstalled to restore them to full service. This was completed by late March 2026. As of April 2026, all active Presto cards had been migrated to the new account-based Presto system, and the legacy Presto system was decommissioned by Metrolinx.” The transit service says a firmware update was deployed across the OC Transpo fare fleet in July 2026 after a software bud was detached earlier this year that could “temporarily disable the smartcard readers on buses.” “As the issue was intermittent, identifying the root cause proved challenging. In June 2026, following an extended investigation, the vendor determined that the defect was triggered by repeated rapid taps of U-Pass cards,” OC Transpo said. O-Train fare gates OC Transpo says the issues with the fare gates during the software upgrade was specific to the readers on buses, and did not affect fare gates at O-Train station. There were 1,722 service reports related to fare gate issues at O-Train issues between January 2025 and June 2026. Staff say if the fare gates are out of service at O-Train points to the point that fare collection is impossible, there are provisions of the contract with the vendor to compensate for lost revenue.
