service_without_service_days: service that never runs Error

A calendar.txt service has every weekday set to 0 and no date added in calendar_dates.txt, so its trips never run. Common causes and how to fix it.

Updated on 21 October 2026

What this rule means

In calendar.txt, each service_id states the days of the week it runs (monday to sunday, 1 or 0) between start_date and end_date. Exceptions in calendar_dates.txt add a date (exception_type = 1) or remove one (exception_type = 2). The rule fires when a service has all seven days set to 0 and no exception adds a date to it: it runs on no day at all.

Severity: error.

Why it matters

Every trip in trips.txt carrying that service_id disappears from the published timetable. If those trips are meant to run (a public holiday service, a school holiday service), the real service is incomplete; if not, the feed holds dead data that gets in the way of reading and maintaining it.

Common causes

• A service defined only by its dates, whose exceptions in calendar_dates.txt were lost or attached to another service_id.
• A service switched off by setting its days to 0 instead of deleting it.
• A public holiday or school holiday service whose dates were not carried over to the new year.
• A difference in case or a stray space between the service_id in calendar.txt and the one in calendar_dates.txt.

How to fix it

Decide whether the service should run. If it should, set the right days in calendar.txt or add its dates to calendar_dates.txt with exception_type = 1. If it is no longer used, delete it from calendar.txt together with the trips that use it (and their stop_times), or move those trips to a service that runs. A service defined only by dates can also live without a row in calendar.txt, in calendar_dates.txt alone.

In GTFS Express, the validation report names the service_id concerned. "Fix one by one" opens its row of calendar.txt in the editor; each change is a retouche in the draft, and "Re-validate" confirms that the service runs.

Example

service_id,monday,tuesday,wednesday,thursday,friday,saturday,sunday,start_date,end_date
HOLIDAY,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,20260901,20270831

There is no HOLIDAY row in calendar_dates.txt. Adding the public holidays of the period fixes the error:

service_id,date,exception_type
HOLIDAY,20261101,1
HOLIDAY,20261111,1
HOLIDAY,20261225,1

See also the guide School holidays and public holidays in GTFS.