OC Tranpso's beleaguered Presto card has been delayed again.
City officials now say it won't be ready until February 2013.
The updated timeline was delivered Wednesday morning by Metrolinx the company behind the Presto system.
The new transit card system was supposed to launch on Canada Day, but that was postponed because of technical glitches during a trial period.
Many riders are frustrated by the glitches and major launch delay.
"It's a joke, a big waste of money," said one rider.
"Its embarrassing, especially for the capital." said another.
The ongoing technical issues with Presto seems to be on the buses themselves. The card readers installed on OC Transpo buses aren't working.
"Just reloading, it will start and stop and not take it at all," said one bus driver.
Metrolinx says they are hoping to fix the issues through software solutions but admit some units might suffer from faulty wiring.
"It's basically the chip or the brains that are embedded in the devices in the bus, they need to find a correction with the issue that's arisen," said Metrolinx CEO Bruce McCuaig.
Problems reported during a family and friends testing stage include the card readers rebooting to cards not tapping at all.
The delay is also frustrating for the city.
"In 15 years of IT implementations, no, I haven't seen anything like this," said Ottawa councillor Tim Tierney. "I think it was a major false start."
"We're not happy," said councillor Diane Deans. "We're the customer. We purchased a product, it's not working."
The new system costs $32 million. The city's contribution is $25 million. So far they've paid nearly $10 million to Metrolinx in installements, but have been ordered to stop the payments until the company can get the Presto system up and running.
OC Transpo chief John Manconi says he won't wait until February to find out if the system will work. He says if it's not fully operational by November, he'll start looking for a Plan B.
OC Transpo price hikes to fares and buses passes will now also be delayed until the Presto card system is ready to go.
With files from CTV's John Hua
