COTA's plan to start real-time bus tracking on the web by the end of July has been shelved - again. Technical complications have held up the system's launch several times. It originally was scheduled for the start of 2014.

When COTA hired a company five years ago to change the way it tracks buses, the agency expected that customers would be able to pinpoint every bus across the city.

Now, COTA is trying to figure out what it should do with a $7.6 million system that, officials say, has failed to deliver on that and other promises.

Real-time bus tracking for customers on the Web was set to launch at the start of 2014, but it has been pushed back several times. The latest start date was scheduled for the end of this month.

However, Central Ohio Transit Authority officials said yesterday that won�t happen because its vendor, the Trapeze Group, hasn�t provided a working system.

�After five years, they have failed to deliver,� Marion White, COTA�s chief financial officer, said during a board meeting yesterday. �They haven�t provided a system that works and meets our requirements.�

In a statement, Trapeze spokeswoman Meaghan Wilkinson said the company plans to continue working with COTA on implementing the system.

Real-time tracking is one component of a larger system that includes radio communication, the automated voice system that comes on at bus stops and generates performance data.

Trapeze calls the system Novas, White said.

The same system has made it impossible for COTA to calculate the number of rides that start at each stop because the GPS on many buses doesn�t work.

The real-time readings must be accurate 90 percent of the time before the system can launch. Internal tests have shown accuracy rates as low as 25 percent, according to COTA.

The transit agency already has increased spending on its new website to try to fix problems syncing satellite data from Trapeze to the site, where users could track buses.

In May, the agency�s board earmarked an additional $44,000 for the website, boosting the total cost to about $219,000.

But problems have persisted, and White told COTA board members yesterday that Trapeze is to blame.

�It appears they misrepresented to us what they can do,� he said.

A committee of COTA administrators selected Trapeze five years ago after considering cost, functionality and the experience of other transit agencies.

COTA did not provide a copy of its contract with Trapeze yesterday. The agency has paid about $5.4 million of the $7.6 million contract.

White said he plans to recommend COTA�s next steps to CEO Curtis Stitt next week.

COTA has a separate $1.5 million contract with the company to handle �asset management,� White said.

Yesterday, board members also approved contracts with several companies that will continue renovations at COTA�s 400,000-square-foot McKinley Avenue bus depot, where it has invested millions of dollars in upgrades and a new compressed-natural-gas fueling station.

The next phase of renovations will cost about $16.9 million and is to be completed late next year, White said.

The board approved spending $14.8 million for it this year. About $13.3 million of that is federal funding; COTA will pay $1.5 million.

COTA also has to rebid roof work that is scheduled for this phase of construction. Engineers estimate that the work will add about $1 million to the cost.

When that phase is finished, COTA drivers will have a new break room and training center. A new bus wash, new air compressors, a renovated second-floor call center and increased parking also are part of the project.

COTA has spent about $40 million on renovations at 1600 McKinley Ave.

rrouan@dispatch.com

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