List Transit Service Alerts
transit_list_service_alertsCheck live service alerts for Bay Area transit delays, outages, detours, and planned disruptions. Filter by agency or keyword to see what's affecting your commute.
Instructions
Service alerts — delays, outages, detours and planned disruptions.
Answers "is BART running normally", "why is my line delayed" and "anything I should know before I leave". Omit operator_id to sweep every Bay Area agency in a single request, which is also the kinder option against the hourly quota.
Args:
operator_id (string): limit to one agency; omit for all operators
query (string): substring match on the headline or description
active_only (boolean): only alerts whose active period covers now (default: true)
limit (number): maximum alerts to return (default: 25)
response_format ('markdown' | 'json'): output format (default: 'markdown')
Returns: { "count": number, "total": number, "truncated": boolean, "alerts": [ { "id": string, "header": string, "description": string, "effect": string, "cause": string, "routes": [string], "start": number, "end": number } ] // epoch SECONDS }
Examples:
"Any BART delays?" -> operator_id='BA'
"Anything wrong on my commute?" -> omit operator_id, read across agencies
"Weekend track work?" -> active_only=false, query='weekend'
Don't use when: you want a specific stop's arrivals (use transit_next_departures)
Error Handling:
No alerts is genuinely good news, not an error — it means normal service
Timestamps here are epoch seconds, unlike the ISO strings elsewhere in this API
Setting active_only=false surfaces future planned work as well as current problems
511 allows 60 requests per hour across ALL endpoints
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| limit | No | Maximum results to return (max 200) | |
| query | No | Case-insensitive substring match on the alert headline or description | |
| active_only | No | Only alerts whose active period covers now | |
| operator_id | No | Limit to one agency; omit for alerts across every Bay Area operator | |
| response_format | No | Output format: 'markdown' for human-readable, 'json' for machine-readable | markdown |
Output Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| count | Yes | ||
| total | Yes | ||
| alerts | Yes | ||
| truncated | Yes |