Halifax Transit is changing how we use Twitter to alert the public to service disruptions.
Until now, Halifax Transit had used Twitter to alert the public to service disruptions manually. In an effort to provide faster updates and decrease the likelihood of errors, Halifax Transit is switching to an automated method for delivering service alerts. To facilitate this new functionality, a new Halifax Transit Twitter account has been created.
The new account, @hfxtransitalert, is fully automated and linked to the CAD/AVL solution in use at Halifax Transit (the same system that powers our GTFS real-time feed).
Using @hfxtransitalert
When a new service alert is created in Halifax Transit's CAD/AVL solution, a tweet containing the relevant information about the service disruption will be posted automatically.
When a service alert ends, the original tweet about that service disruption will be deleted automatically.
The result is a feed that will always contain a comprehensive list of all active service alerts at any given time.