DOTS and RHA officials are working to restore NextBus — the service that provides real-time arrival estimations for Shuttle-UM bus stops — which has been malfunctioning for six weeks, according to DOTS Assistant Director Beverly Malone.

Since students voiced complaints about NextBus at the Residence Hall Association’s Oct. 25 Town Hall forum, the RHA’s Transportation Advisory Committee — which acts as a liaison between students and the Department of Transportation Services — has been encouraging DOTS to push NextBus to the front of its agenda.

When DOTS first learned of the problem six weeks ago, the department contacted NextBus and discovered that AT&T — the wireless provider that allows NextBus to generate real-time arrival information — was experiencing nationwide service problems, Malone said.

“The NextBus system works fine, but it depends on wireless and the wireless system is not working,” she said.

Although the system has improved since then, it is not performing up to par, according to Omer Kaufman, RHA’s Transportation Advisory Committee chair.

“Currently NextBus is working — not at its best or not as we hoped it would,” Kaufman said. “It’s rather slow. If you try to text it or call it, then sometimes you won’t be able to reach it as fast as you’d like.”

At points during the past six weeks, students reported that the digital NextBus screens at Stamp Student Union read, “Registering…” instead of showing bus arrival times. Additionally, students at the Town Hall complained that the NextBus text message system — in which students can text “nbus umd” and the five-digit bus stop number to 41411 for the next shuttle’s predicted arrival time — was not functioning properly either, RHA Vice President Sasha Azar said.

Freshman music major Lauren Arel said when she texted the system while she was waiting at a Courtyards bus stop she received a text back that read, “Invalid.”

“I just wanted to know when [buses] were coming and how long I’d be forced to wait in the cold,” Arel said.

According to Azar, committee members consider this issue their highest priority and are taking “huge steps to get it fixed quickly” by conveying student concerns to DOTS.

“They have everything else on hold until they learn why this is a problem,” Azar said. “Their main priority right now is to get it fixed.”

If the problem persists, Malone said DOTS could either terminate its contract with NextBus — which was installed on the campus during the summer of 2010 — or NextBus could switch off AT&T’s service.

“Your only decision is this: Is this lack of service a breach of contract?” Malone said. “It was working. … Obviously, if the system does not work as in the contract, we wouldn’t renew it.”

While it is still unclear when NextBus will be fully functional again, Malone said DOTS is not yet searching for other vendors to provide bus stop time predictions.

Several students, such as sophomore chemistry major Rhiannon Aguilar, said that although they could depend on the system before, they are inconvenienced by not knowing exactly when buses are scheduled to arrive.

“It’s super annoying to be standing at Stamp and not be able to use it all, especially when it’s cold outside and you want to know when a bus is going to come,” Aguilar said.

foley@umdbk.com