The next bus to modern transit technology has still not arrived, even if the Internet claims it has.

Glitches marred the launch of Calgary Transit’s new user-friendly website and highly anticipated real-time bus information, which is supposed to allow users to enter a bus route or stop number on a phone, tablet or desktop computer and instantly find out exactly when their bus will arrive.

“We’re trying to minimize those cold days standing out at the stop,” said Calgary Transit director Doug Morgan after the new transit website and real-time information was launched on Monday.

The next day, customers found themselves standing out in the cold, waiting.

The majority of the website’s real-time route information was not working on Tuesday after the site’s servers were “overwhelmed” by unanticipated traffic on launch day.

“If you’re on there today (Tuesday), you’re probably not seeing any real-time predictions and that’s because we’re doing some adjustments based upon some of the action we had in rush hour yesterday,” Morgan said Tuesday.

“Based on what we learned yesterday and the amount of people hitting (the website), we’ve had to upgrade some of the capacity to make sure we can provide the service. Today we’re working on it so it might be intermittent.”

Morgan said two to four times more people visited the Calgary Transit website on Monday afternoon, when compared to the old website’s typical traffic volumes.

“Like any website, it takes a bit to anticipate when the peaks are going to come and make sure that we’ve got the right solutions for the amount of people trying to hit the information,” he said.

Routes that were not showing real-time bus information on Tuesday instead calculated anticipated arrival times based on route schedules.

After the website went live at 10:05 a.m. Monday, it was applauded by the mayor and some customers as a big improvement for Calgary Transit.

“This revolutionizes the way we use Calgary Transit, and it is a dramatic step forward in making transit much more customer-focused,” wrote Mayor Naheed Nenshi in a well-liked Facebook post.

Transitcamp YYC director Chris Larsen called the website “a huge leap forward,” specifically when it comes to getting accurate real-time information to people, rather than “regurgitated” schedules.

“The old site, as everyone knows, was really dated and not user-friendly and you couldn’t really use it that well on a mobile device,” he said.

Larsen said he wasn’t surprised the new website was overwhelmed by traffic on Monday, likening it to when a popular video game is launched and bugs need to be worked out.

“I’d imagine there might be some hiccups,” he said.

“On transit’s part, it’s probably a good lesson for what the capacities of (the website) are ... It would be disappointing if this happened anymore than a couple times a year.”

The website’s real-time information is based on GPS technology that remotely tracks a buses location and the information is updated every 90 seconds.

Morgan said it takes “a lot of IT horsepower” to run the new site and the real-time information may continue to be absent in the coming days as staff tweak the website.

“Probably over the next week, we’ll be fine-tuning it so sometimes (the realtime information) will be there and sometimes it won’t,” he said.

Morgan said there are still about 80 of 1,000 buses that require the GPS technology, meaning some routes may continue to rely on scheduled information, instead of real-time information, even once the glitches are worked out.

While the website is mobile-friendly, a Calgary Transit app is currently in the works and is expected to be released early next year.

The redeveloped website is estimated to cost $500,000. The real-time information and equipping all buses with GPS technology is estimated to cost $16 million.

aklingbeil@calgaryherald.com