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
Create a GTFS feed with replacement servicesGet help with planned service changes
Learn about how to make planned changes to services.
Get help with unplanned service changes
If the data for your replacement services isn’t in your GTFS feed, update it to contain these services. Learn more about planned service changes.
If data for your replacement services is in your GTFS feed and you have a GTFS-realtime feed launched, refer to the realtime feed section below.
Launch GTFS data for your agency
Create a GTFS feed with replacement servicesTo use replacement services on Google Maps, you must actively provide Google with a GTFS dataset. If you launched a feed for your agency on Google Maps, we recommend you use this dataset for your replacement services instead of a new dataset.
If the data for your agency hasn’t launched on Google Maps, reach out to the Google Transit partners program.
Tip: The time required for a feed to launch varies and depends on the quality and accuracy of your GTFS static data. For a planned replacement, we recommend that you start this process as soon as possible.
Request expedited emergency launch
If you need to launch a GTFS feed for an agency that hasn’t appeared on Google Maps due to an emergency situation, it may be possible to launch your data sooner. In this case, please indicate this situation to the Transit partners team and provide proof, such as a news article of the emergency. Google Transit makes the final decision whether to expedite the launch of the given feed.
We may require revisions to your GTFS data if we find any data quality issues.
If you need to replace services that are currently launched on Google Maps, but not owned by your agency:
- Contact the owner of the GTFS data launched on Google Maps that needs their services replaced and request that they create a service alert to indicate that your services will replace their services.
- Contact us. You can also reach out to transit-partners@google.com. Include details on the replacement service and your GTFS feed name. We try to contact the owner or set an alert on behalf of the 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.