Create a service alert

When there's a disruption on your network, you can create service alerts to provide additional information for users. When you create service alerts, they’re added to your Transit feeds and are displayed on Google Maps.

About service alerts

With Google Transit, you can tell users about current or future service disruptions that may affect their trip with service alerts.

Service alerts can be published using GTFS Realtime feeds or they can be manually published in the Transit Data Sharing Portal.

If you publish service alert info somewhere other than the Transit Data Sharing Portal, Google may reproduce this info within Google Maps to help our users.

Manually create a service alert

Use the Manual service alerts page in the Transit Data Sharing Portal to create and manage alerts for your transit service.

 

1. On the Transit Data Sharing Portal, click the Manual service alerts tab. 
2. On the Manual service alerts page, click Create alert.
3. In the page that opens, enter the following information: 
   1. Alert pipeline: This specifies which pipeline the alert should be added to.
   2. Alert active period(s): This defines the schedule for when the alert is visible on Google Maps.
   3. Affected entities: This specifies which entities will be affected by the alert and determines which passengers will be able to see the alert: 
      1. Agency ID
      2. Route IDs (use comma to separate multiple values)
      3. Route type
      4. Stop IDs (use comma to separate multiple values)
   4. Problem: This shows the cause and effect of the problem associated with this alert.
   5. Languages: This shows the description of the problem in various languages, if applicable. 
4. Once you're finished, click Create.

Learn how to manage existing alerts.