You might have noticed the following on the AATA website recently:

Starting Sep. 22 due to data upgrades the real-time bus information will be unavailable until further notice.

I know that some of you out there really depend on this info.  I contacted the AATA and they let me know that they are currently working on the upgrade so they can get the data up again as soon as possible.  So they are definitely trying to correct the problem.  If I hear anything else, I’ll post it in this post.

UPDATE:  According to the AATA, here’s the situation:

The core software of our operating system is undergoing a major overhaul. We’ve been effectively using a first-generation system (one of the first in the world) with lots of patches up to this point…so this is really needed.

Unfortunately this will take the bus tracking offline for two-three weeks.

Most of our internal systems have data right now.

This upgrade is expected to bring enhancements internally, but I don’t know at point if any of these will be easily visible to riders.

According to an AATA staff person, this upgrade should help improve data accessibility and reliability.

UPDATE 09/25/08: Here’s what the IT person at the AATA says about the issue:

We do expect this service to resume within the next two weeks. We are upgrading our GPS system and due to technical constraints, cannot provide Ride Trak information while upgrading.  Within the next few days we will be able to post better information on our website, www.theride.org, concerning the date this service will resume.

UPDATE 2 09/25/08: Here’s what the Community Relations Manager Says:

AATA uses multiple software products that provide the data that is available on RideTrak. The backbone of our real time information system has been in need of an upgrade and a new server for some time and has been linked to some of the problems experienced by RideTrak users. The upgrade is in process this week and testing is being conducted on the RideTrak system concurrently. We anticipate that RideTrak will be available within one to two weeks at the most. We apologize for the inconvenience this causes to all of our users and hope to have it up and running sooner.

Unfortunately, we were not able to run the old system while testing the new system. This was our preference but to do this we would have had to set up two infrastructures on every bus and at our communication tower.

I hope this answers your question and again, we apologize for the inconvenience.

Regards,

Mary K. Stasiak
Manager of Community Relations