Until the new system is running, students will not be able to see live bus arrival times but can refer to the Unitrans website for bus schedule information
By ANGELINA ANGELO — campus@theaggie.org
Due to the nationwide AT&T 3G network shutdown, the Unitrans Nextbus live tracking system, which provides real-time bus arrival predictions, is no longer available to students and Unitrans bus drivers. Not only is this shutdown affecting Unitrans, but it is also impacting transit agencies across the country. Well over 5,000 students rely on this system daily, according to Jeffrey Flynn, the general manager of Unitrans.
“This outage is not ideal for students who are busy juggling their personal, social and academic lives,” said Luck Vuong, a fifth-year civil engineering major and the student Unitrans route supervisor manager.
Vuong recommends that students take an earlier bus, arrive at the bus stop one to two minutes earlier than the arrival time on the bus schedule and reach out to bus drivers with concerns.
Bus drivers will stick to the set schedule, but unexpected delays and traffic may still occur. In order to provide accurate bus arrival predictions with the new AT&T network, Unitrans will need to acquire replacement parts to reset its system.
“[Unitrans] is waiting on replacement parts, which are currently delayed one to three months due to supply chain issues,” Flynn said.
Unitrans managing staff is actively seeking out solutions for the time being, according to Flynn.
“We are testing bridge systems in the next weeks in an attempt to find a temporary solution for students,” Flynn said.
Students can find bus schedule information on the Unitrans website and on paper schedules, which are available on the buses or at the bus terminal boxes.
Justin Medrano, a fourth-year pharmaceutical chemistry major and the student Unitrans operations manager, shared similar sentiments with Flynn.
“We are trying our hardest as supervisors and as drivers to make service as reliable as possible,” Medrano said. “We ask that the public bears with us. We are as much in the dark as [students] are right now. We understand it’s frustrating not to be able to look at a map and see where the buses are at in real time, and [we] are working toward solutions.”
Written by: Angelina Angelo — campus@theaggie.org
