Validation errors

Validation errors are critical blocking issues that you must fix before Google can correctly process your feed.

Departure-arrival intervals over 24 hours

Error in English: Departure-arrival intervals over 24 hours

Time intervals between stop times of 24 hours or longer aren’t supported. Google GTFS validation and import tools report trips with these intervals as errors.

Tip: Very few transit systems have trips where a full 24 hours passes between 2 stops, so these situations should be rare.

Examples

Example 1

A trip leaves stop A at 9 AM. Over the next 24 hours, the trip might make a series of stops until it reaches its final destination at stop B at 10 AM the following day. The passengers can’t exit the vehicle at the intermediate stops because the stops have a drop_off_type value of 1. This gives the total travel time between the stops at 25 hours, which results in an error. 

• We measure the maximum interval from where the passenger boards to where they're next allowed to get off. When that interval is more than 24 hours, the trip is marked as an error.

Example 2

A trip leaves stop A at 9 AM. Over the next 24 hours, the trip might make a series of stops until it reaches its final destination at stop B at 10 AM the following day. For this trip, the arrival or departure times for the intermediate stops aren’t specified. Because these stops aren’t specified, we consider the time interval for this trip to be 25 hours.

You can fix this if you specify arrival and departure times for the intermediate stops.

Duplicate column names

Error in English: Duplicate column names

This error happens when incorrectly formatted files are uploaded. Each line must end with a “CRLF” or “LF” line break character.

Most text viewers display lines that end with CR correctly, but these lines aren’t processed correctly by our systems.

Duplicate identifier

Error in English: Duplicate identifier

We find an identifier with duplicate values when that value must be unique across the entire dataset.

For example, if the trips.txt file has more than one trip with the same trip_id, we send this error.

Missing referenced value

Error in English: Missing referenced value

A missing referenced value is a fatal error and means the feed can’t be used.

When values in a column in one file make reference to values from a column in another file, each value in the first column must match a value from the second column. If a value in the first column doesn’t match a value from the second column, the feed validator returns a "Missing referenced value" error.

Example

Your fare_rules.txt file makes reference to a route_id that doesn’t exist in the routes.txt file.

The fare_rules.txt file:

routes.txt

route_id,route_short_name,route_type

r1,S1,3

r2,S2,3

The routes.txt file:

trips.txt

route_id,trip_id,service_id

r3,t0,weekly

This feed fails to parse and validate. GTFS requires that a value in the route_id column of the trips.txt file matches a value in the route_id column of the routes.txt file. In the example, the trips.txt route_id value of r3 doesn’t match any of the route_id values from the routes.txt file. The files can’t be validated.

There are many such value-reference constraints defined in the GTFS specification. Be sure that values are properly matched between different GTFS files.

Missing required file

Error in English: Missing required file

We can’t read the feed file you provided.

The error is commonly caused by encoding problems or when the files are grouped under a directory within the zip file. The zip file must contain individual files all on one level with no sub-directory structure.

No feed language specified

Error in English: No feed language specified

The feed language isn’t specified, which makes it difficult to present the feed in different languages.

To specify a language: Add either an agency_lang field in the agency.txt file or a feed_info.txt file.

Overlapping stop times for block trips

Error in English: Overlapping stop times for block trips

In a GTFS feed, 2 trips in the trips.txt file can be linked with the block_id field. You can link 2 or more trips served by the same vehicle, especially in cases where a transit passenger might stay on the vehicle across trips.

Important: You must fix this situation because 2 trips can't belong to the same block if their stop times overlap.

Example

2 trips are linked with the same block_id.

The 2 trips in the same block:

trip_id,route_id,service_id,block_id

t0,r0,weekday,block0

t1,r0,weekday,block0

The 2 trips with their stop times:

trip_id,stop_id,stop_sequence,arrival_time,departure_time

t0,stop0,0,09:00:00,09:00:00

t0,stop1,1,09:30:00,09:30:00

t1,stop2,0,09:25:00,09:25:00

t1,stop3,1,10:00:00,10:00:00

The trips are invalid because they’re in the same block, are active on the same service date, and have stop times that overlap.

The trip t0 starts at 9:00 AM and ends at 9:30 AM, and the trip t1 starts at 9:25 AM and ends at 10:00 AM. This means that the vehicle would have to finish trip t0 and then travel back in time to begin trip t1. 

You must order the trips so that the last stop of one trip comes before the first stop time of the other trip.

To fix this problem: You can make the last stop time of trip t0 have the same time as the first stop time of trip t1.

If you get "Overlapping stop times for block trips" warnings, answer the following questions to help fix the problem:

• Are the stop times correct for the 2 overlapping trips?
• Are the 2 overlapping trips actually in the same block? 
  • Trips in the same block mean the same service vehicle serves both trips.
• Are the service_ids for the 2 trips correct? 
  • If 2 trips aren’t active on the same service date, the trips can have the same block_id and overlapping stop times. To create different service dates, you must enter different service_id values for each trip and different service dates in the calendar.txt file.

Stop too far from parent station

Error in English: Stop too far from parent station

A warning triggers when validation finds a stop that’s more than 100 meters but fewer than 1000 meters from its parent station. The stop and station are linked through the parent_station column in the stops.txt file.

Generally, a stop that’s part of a station complex isn’t far from the parent station. If a stop is found to be a large distance from its parent station, it may indicate a problem with the GTFS feed.

To resolve "Stop too far from parent station" warnings, confirm:

• The stop location is correct
• The parent station location is correct
• The stop belongs to a specified station

Keep in mind:

• If the stop isn't part of the parent station complex, you should update the parent station complex.
• If a subway entrance is far from the center of the corresponding station, you can ignore the warning. 
• A stop more than 1000 meters from its parent station triggers a validation error.