Onboard screen errors leave some Ottawa riders lost on LRT Line 2

The information screen of a Bayview-bound train at South Keys Station mistakenly displays Limebank as its destination on May 8, 2025. Photo by Douaa Qadadia /PostmediaArticle content

Some OC Transpo riders say they have been left confused because of malfunctioning navigation screens on Ottawa’s Line 2 trains.

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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.

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“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.”

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She said the screens showed the incorrect destination, sending her to the wrong end of the city.

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“I cried that day.”

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Jama says she worries about those who did not have internet access so they could double-check their routes.

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“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?”

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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.

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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.

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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to a statement from a spokesperson, adding that these disruptions could lead to momentary displays of incorrect or outdated information and that the issues didn’t affect all vehicles in the same way.

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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.

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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.

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The agency said it had received “minimal” complaints about the issue.

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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.

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But for others, like Varenkrish “Maxim” Baloomoody, the situation is confusing.

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“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.

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“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.

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“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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