Transit Data Health Alerts

Swiftly Transit Data Health Alerts

Swiftly helps agencies keep transit data accurate and reliable by monitoring for common issues and sending out Transit Data Health Alerts. These alerts highlight problems that could affect real-time information in Swiftly as well as rider-facing apps like Google Maps, Transit, and others.

Below are the alerts currently available, what they mean, and who should receive them.

Receiving Transit Data Health Alerts

If you would like to start receiving any of the alerts listed below, please contact your Swiftly Account Manager or Swiftly Technical Support. 

🚍 Vehicle Assignment Issues

What this alert means
Swiftly assigns each vehicle in service to a scheduled trip. A Vehicle Assignment Issue alert is triggered when Swiftly cannot match a significant number of vehicles to scheduled service for an extended period of time.

Possible causes

• Problems with real-time vehicle location feeds (AVL data), which tell Swiftly where vehicles are.
• Problems with schedule data (GTFS), the static data that describe when and where service should run.
• Mismatches between the two datasets or other data issues.

Why it matters
Stable vehicle assignments can be a proxy for overall transit data health. If vehicles can’t be matched to trips, downstream applications like Swiftly, Google Maps, and the Transit App may not be able to provide accurate information to riders.

Who should get this alert
We recommend this alert for all agencies, especially for IT or maintenance staff who can investigate and resolve data feed issues.

📅 GTFS Expirations

What this alert means
GTFS (General Transit Feed Specification) is the industry-standard format for publishing transit schedules. A GTFS Expiration alert is triggered when the active GTFS file in Swiftly is about to expire or has already expired. A file is considered “expired” when the last service date has passed and no future service is scheduled.

Why it matters
GTFS is the source of truth for downstream applications like Swiftly, Google Maps, and the Transit app. If it expires, they may be sharing incorrect or outdated service information to riders.

Who should get this alert
Anyone responsible for publishing and maintaining GTFS data, such as planners, schedulers, or IT staff.

⚠️ GTFS “Small Amount of Service” Issues

What this alert means
This alert triggers when a new GTFS file is uploaded to Swiftly, but contains far less scheduled service at the start of the file than expected.

Why it matters
Correcting these issues ensures that downstream tools (Swiftly, Google Maps, etc.) have accurate schedule data, in turn ensuring riders have the right information about your service.

Who should get this alert
Agency staff responsible for scheduling and maintaining GTFS.

🛑 (COMING SOON) GTFS “Fatal Processing” Issues

What this alert means
This alert is triggered when a new GTFS file is uploaded to Swiftly but cannot be processed or activated due to critical errors.

Why this happens

• The GTFS file is corrupted or cannot be opened.
• The file contains errors that conflict with the GTFS specification in a major way.
• Activating the file would cause critical issues in the Swiftly platform.

Why it matters
When a GTFS file cannot be processed, Swiftly cannot use it as the active schedule. This can disrupt downstream data quality until a corrected file is uploaded.

Who should get this alert
Staff responsible for GTFS data publishing and validation (typically schedulers, planners, or IT).