Bad news today for riders who use the 32 Metro bus routes that take part in the NextBus tracking system. Or, good news for those who are tired of the system giving out bunk information.

WMATA plans to suspend the notification service by late October for up to 18 months, saying it’s not accurate enough to expand as-is to the other 306 system routes, reports the Post.

The program, which uses a GPS system to track buses and update riders on how soon they will hit stops, is only accurate about 80 percent of the time, Metro officials said. That rating is apparently not up to snuff with the standards of Metro chief John Catoe.

While we readily give two points to Catoe for not letting a sub-par system slip through the cracks, and there are obviously plenty of other things on which Metro could focus their time and attention, it’s annoying that the program was rolled out and never completely worked. This announcement also reminds us to ask, hey Mr. Catoe, what ever happened to getting the Metro train arrival notification board’s bugs worked out? Those still seem to be wrong most of the time, too.

What has your experience with NextBus been like? Will you miss it, or did its problems cause you to give up on it before this announcement?

Photo by Flickr user hey-helen