After you publish your data in the General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) format, review your GTFS feed to be sure it's functional and accurate. This is important, not just to provide a valid GTFS feed, but to ensure that your feed provides your riders with valid data.
Feed validation
When you upload a new version of a feed, your feed will automatically be validated to help troubleshoot and optimize your feed operations. Review any errors or warnings you see to ensure the data you've submitted is accurate. Once you've fixed any issues, resubmit your feed to have it validated again.
Feed validation reviews the following aspects of your data for potential issues:
- Duplicate identifiers
- Fares
- Feeds
- Frequencies
- Missing file, reference value, or feed language
- Routes
- Service dates and times
- Shapes
- Stops and Stations
- Time
- Transfers
- Trips
If the Transit Data Sharing Portal finds issues with your data, update your feed and then re-upload it. After you have uploaded a feed that tests correctly in private preview and which has no errors or unacceptable warnings, please request a Quality Assurance (QA) review from Google.
Validation errors
Validation errors are critical, blocking issues that prevent Google from correctly processing your feed until you fix them.
You must fix validation errors before your data can be launched on Google Maps.
Validation warnings
Validation warnings are informational messages that indicate potential problems with your feed, some of which could prevent your transit data from displaying properly to Google Maps users. Review the warnings to ensure that the data in your feed is accurate and correctly coded. Where warnings indicate problems, update and then re-validate the feed.
Types of feed issues
Review your GTFS feed to identify and address errors and warnings. The following table shows issues that can arise in your data feed.
| Issue type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Fetch errors | Issues that prevent Google from retrieving your feed, usually due to a data fetch setup issue. You must fix these errors before Google can create a preview feed or provide a validation report. | The FTP URL you submitted is inaccurate, causing a 404 when Google tries to fetch your feed. |
| Validation errors |
Critical, blocking issues that must be fixed in order for your feed to work. |
Missing referenced value Theservice_id referenced in trips.txt is not defined in calendar.txt. |
| Validation warnings |
Potential feed problems to review so you can be sure your feed accurately describes transit routes and schedules. |
Example 1 Google flags a stop that your feed indicates is located in the middle of the ocean. Update your feed to properly locate the stop. Example 2 Google returns a warning because a route schedule appears too tight based on the distance between stops. Check your information and confirm it is accurate; if it is, no further action is needed on your part. |
Review static validation reports
Validation reports will show you any static validation errors and warnings to help you troubleshoot your GTFS feeds.
To review a validation report for a static feed:
- In the Transit Data Sharing Portal, start in the Data tab, then click the name of the static feed you want to see a report for.
- In the feed detail page, expand a row in the Transfers section, then click Validation report.
Google accounts can only view validation reports our system generates after the account was granted Transit Data Sharing Portal access. These accounts will not be able to access existing reports.
Validation report features
The validation report includes a navigation bar with tabs for the following report features:
- Feed overview
- Stops
- Calendars
- Queries
The initial overview tab of the validation report is a high-level summary that includes statistics about the feed and a listing of routes and agencies.
The overview also shows any validation errors and warnings.
To ensure data accuracy, you must fix validation errors before your data can be launched on Google Maps.
We strongly recommend that you fix validation warnings.
The Stops tab of the validation report shows on a map all stops in your feed. Use this view to verify stop locations.
The Calendars tab shows a summary of all service calendars computed for your feed. Use this view to verify that the service dates specified in your feed are correct. Pay particular attention to weekends, holidays, and other special service settings.
The Queries tab includes randomly generated Google Maps directions queries between pairs of stops in your feed. Use these queries to test and verify transit routing results when you launch the feed in preview. You can also use these queries to augment your own routing results tests.
