Disruptions, diversions, occupancy and alerts

There may be scheduled diversions along your public transport (OV) route due to maintenance work or big events in the city. Sudden disruptions caused by accidents or overcrowding can affect your journey as well. That’s why it’s always a good idea to check the status of your journey before you depart. Or even better: just set an Alert!

Read more about public transport diversions, disruptions and occupancy here. You can also read about what Alerts are and how to set them.

What is the difference between a disruption and a diversion?

Sometimes disruptions and diversions prevent us from following our timetable. This can result in delays or suspended service. Allow us to explain the difference between a disruption and a diversion.

Disruptions

A disruption is an unexpected event that prevents a bus, tram, metro or ferry from continuing along its standard route. Collisions or other accidents that block the road are examples of disruptions.

These are often resolved quickly. We indicate a delay by changing the colour of the box around the line number:

Orange box: brief delay
Red box: transport is not possible — service is suspended

We incorporate any delays or service suspensions into our journey planner as soon as possible.

Diversions

A diversion is often scheduled in advance and involves maintenance work or closed roads in the city due to an event. Examples of these are bridge repairs or the Amsterdam marathon.

In the event of a diversion, we can inform you beforehand. We indicate this on our website and in our app by changing the box around the line number to blue. The journey planner will take the diversion into account when providing you with customised travel recommendations.

Where can I find an overview of all disruptions and diversions?

An overview of all scheduled diversions is available on our website. Any disruptions we are currently aware of are shown there as well.

View current disruptions and scheduled diversions

In the GVB app Gappie, all information can be found under Disruptions.

Download the GVB app Gappie

Where can I find current disruptions?

You can find current disruptions:

In the disruptions section on our website
On the GVB app Gappie under Disruptions

For each bus, tram and metro line, we indicate if there is suspended service, longer travel times or shortened routes. If your stop has a digital information screen, you can check it for information on delays or suspended service as well.

Tips

It can sometimes take a few minutes before the disruption information is updated online. Regularly checking the website or our GVB app Gappie is recommended for the most current information.

Where can I find current diversions?

Our journey planner automatically shows any diversions along your route. Is there a diversion on your route? If so, the journey planner will also provide you with other options for reaching your destination, so that you can avoid the diversion.

Tips

The route of a scheduled diversion is only visible once the diversion has gone into effect. For example, if a diversion begins on Monday morning, you won’t see it reflected in the journey planner on Sunday. You can find out the bus, tram or metro route beforehand in our announcement about the diversion.

How busy is it on public transport right now?

The online journey planner and the GVB app Gappie show you how busy it is on the train, tram, metro or ferry you’ll be taking.

Are you wondering how busy it is right now? Enter your starting location and destination into the journey planner. The people icons indicate how busy it is per journey:

1 person: there is enough room
2 people: there is not much room
3 people: there is little room
Do you see grey icons with a question mark? That means there is no information about the current occupancy

These icons are an estimate of how busy it will be. They may not accurately reflect the current number of travellers. We use OV-chipkaart (public transport chip card) data to predict how busy it will be.

Tips

Are you looking for your stop under Stops? If so, there will be an overview of all journeys and the expected number of people for each journey. This enables you to plan your journey in a way that works best for you. In the GVB app Gappie, all this information can be found under Departure Times.

What is an Alert, and how can I set one?

We can send you an Alert if there is currently a disruption or scheduled diversion along your route. You set the Alert yourself in our app. Once you’ve done this, you will automatically receive a notification if anything happens on your route.

How do I set an Alert in the GVB app Gappie?

Setting an Alert:

Open the GVB app Gappie
Go to More > Edit preferences > Alert
Turn on Notification and set your Alert as needed. For example, if you only plan on travelling during the morning and afternoon rush hours on weekdays, enter these days and times. Enter the line(s) that you take the most frequently as well. You will only receive an Alert from us for the days and the times you’ve provided.
Go to Settings > Apps > Gappie and allow notifications from the GVB app Gappie. If you don’t provide this permission, you won’t receive Alerts for your route.

Have you set everything up? If so, we will send you a notification about the next disruption or diversion on your route.

Download the GVB app Gappie