Replacement services help you plan for expected service changes and deal with unexpected events that impact your transit routes. You can also cancel or add trips in real time, replace services not owned by your agency, and expedite your Google Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) launch.
Learn about replacement services
Understand expected replacement services
Expected replacement services were anticipated and planned before an event.
For example:
- Construction work is expected to prevent railway journeys between stations A and B. Replacement bus services will operate between these stations.
Understand unexpected replacement services
Unexpected replacement services weren’t anticipated, perhaps due to an unexpected event or emergency.
Examples:
- A natural disaster has taken out a section of railway. Bus services will operate between the affected stations until repairs can be completed.
- A traffic accident at a railway crossing has canceled railway services between stations A and B. As a temporary solution, bus services will operate between the affected stations.
Use static feeds
Launch GTFS data for your agency
Edit your realtime routine
Add or remove trips
Learn how to cancel or add trips based on current data with your GTFS static feed in GTFS-realtime:
Tip: To add a trip in realtime, you must reference a current trip_id within your static data so that you can use it as a template for the stop pattern/route for the given trip.
Use manual service alerts
If you don’t have a live service-alert feed on Google Maps, we recommend that you use the manual service alerts editor in the Transit partner dashboard to provide information to users on replacement services and service cancellations. Learn more about the service alert editor.
Tip: Service cancellations can be provided through manual service alerts with the NO_SERVICE effect value. Learn how to cancel services with an alert.