Passengers ride The LAP Commuter Bus on Thursday as the bus pulls out of the Lewiston-Auburn Transportation Center in Auburn. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

LEWISTON — As The LAP Commuter Bus service — which links Lewiston/Auburn and Portland — nears four months on the road, riders say they still have difficulty tracking the bus.

Lack of a tracking feature has been one of the major issues for riders since July, when the two-year pilot service began its daily runs between the Twin Cities and Portland.

“We have not done any proactive communication about the TripShot app that customers can use to track the buses,” Paul Merrill, director of communications at the Maine Department of Transportation, said, adding, “You’ll start to see social media ads in the coming weeks.”

TripShot is an application separate from Token Transit, which riders use for buying a pass to board the bus. On TripShot, riders can select The LAP from the “Routes” menu and track vehicle movements in real-time without having to call dispatch.

Neither TripShot or Token Transit have a built-in schedule. The current LAP schedule remains confusing and hard to read for many riders, so much so that MDOT is planning to make changes in the near future. “A graphic designer (is) working on a version that we hope will be more user-friendly,” Merrill said, without elaborating on when it would be available.

The schedules, routes and stops are all up for possible changes. The service is exploring the use of a text notification system as well.

“We expect we’ll know more about trends and how to respond to them after the service has been running for a few more months,” Merrill said.

According to the MDOT data, the service saw about a 25% rise in ridership between September and October, with total rides jumping from 1,873 to 2,338.

Donna Green, driver of a LAP Commuter Bus, checks her rear-view mirror Thursday before pulling out of the Oak Street Bus Station in Lewiston. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

Mike Anderson, a security guard at the Oak Street Bus Station in Lewiston, said he has heard plans about LAP signage coming nearby. “They said they’re going to be getting a sign put out on the Bates Street side,” Anderson said.

Anderson said that he thinks the service is “very convenient,” but he has also had the chance to observe some of the daily hiccups.

“Three times a day (The LAP buses) come back here at the same time as city buses. They all want to pull up at the same spot,” Anderson said. “There’s not enough proper space.”

RTW Management Inc. is the Utah-based contractor overseeing the $2.8 million pilot project. Despite several attempts, the company could not be reached for questions about the timeline for expected changes.