Transit agencies today face a unique kind of paranormal activity. Instead of rattling chains in empty stations, these ghosts lurk in the data, haunting passenger information displays and transit apps across cities worldwide. Riders check their phones anxiously anticipating a bus in three minutes, only to watch the countdown vanish into thin air. Sometimes a bus even appears unannounced, materializing at a stop like an uninvited specter. This is the infamous phenomenon of ghost buses: when real-time passenger information (RTPI) and reality refuse to align.
There are two categories of ghost buses: when RTPI either promises service that doesn’t exist or fails to convey service that does. One example of the former category is when the app insists a bus is approaching, but operations canceled the trip hours ago without updating the system. An example of the latter is a vehicle finishing its route and moving toward a parking spot, and the automatic vehicle location system mistaking this movement for the start of the next scheduled trip, broadcasting phantom arrival times to expecting passengers.
The most common causes of ghost buses are operational changes, including trip cancellations, curtailments, diversions, and schedule adjustments that are executed in the field but never modified in the central system. A less frequent cause is hyperlocal quirks in how specific routes are configured, like vehicles that trigger trip-start events simply by leaving a stop to find parking. There are occasional software bugs, but the overwhelming majority of ghost bus hauntings trace back to a fundamental disconnect: operations and data living in separate worlds.
How INIT Banishes the Phantoms
At INIT, we don’t view ghost buses as inevitable hauntings, but as solvable challenges. Our approach centers on bridging the gaps where ghosts take root: the shortfalls in planning, operations, and passenger communication.
Through our Intermodal Transport Control System (ITCS), schedule changes flow automatically from dispatch to real-time feeds. When dispatchers cancel trips in ITCS, that information propagates instantly via GTFS and/or SIRI to customer-configured passenger-facing channels, including apps, website trip planners, and digital displays at bus stops. There’s no opportunity for systems to fall out of sync.
Our planning and scheduling tools work in unison with ITCS to ensure that what’s planned, dispatched, and communicated to riders remains accurate and up to date. When ghost buses do appear, INIT’s analytical capabilities help agencies conduct thorough troubleshooting. Is it a data flow issue, process gap, or a route-specific problem? Equipped with these insights, agencies can implement targeted solutions rather than chasing phantoms.
Ready to Hunt Down Your Ghost Buses?
Contact our team to see how INIT’s integrated solutions can bridge the gap between your data and operations.