GTFS

GTFS
GTFS
Team Organizations	TriMet
Point of Contact	Bibiana McHugh
Participating Municipalities	Worldwide
Sectors	Data
Initiative	Community Standards
Status	Launched
Last Updated	April 10, 2025

Summary

The General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) is a widely used data format that allows public transit agencies to share their schedule, route, and fare information in a standardized way. It was originally developed by Google and TriMet (Portland, Oregon’s transit agency) in 2005 to enable transit information to be easily integrated into Google Maps. Since then, GTFS has become a global standard for public transit data, enabling real-time transit applications and analytics.

GTFS Components

GTFS consists of two main parts:

• GTFS Static – Defines fixed transit schedules, routes, and fares.
• GTFS Realtime – Provides live updates about arrival times, service alerts, and vehicle positions.

GTFS Static Feed Structure

A GTFS static feed is a collection of CSV files that describe transit services. The key files include:

• agency.txt – Information about the transit agency (name, URL, time zone, etc.).
• routes.txt – Describes available transit routes.
• trips.txt – Links routes to individual trips.
• stops.txt – Defines all transit stops and their locations.
• stop_times.txt – Specifies the arrival and departure times for each stop on a trip.
• calendar.txt – Defines when services operate (weekdays, weekends, holidays).
• shapes.txt (optional) – Defines the geographic path of routes.
• fare_attributes.txt (optional) – Details fare pricing information.
• fare_rules.txt (optional) – Specifies which fares apply to different routes or zones.

GTFS Realtime Feed

GTFS Realtime (GTFS-RT) extends the static GTFS feed by providing live updates, typically in Protocol Buffer (protobuf) format. The three key types of real-time data include:

• Trip Updates – Changes to scheduled arrival/departure times.
• Service Alerts – Notifications about delays, detours, or service interruptions.
• Vehicle Positions – Real-time GPS coordinates and statuses of vehicles.

Applications of GTFS

• Public Transit Apps: Google Maps, Apple Maps, Transit, Citymapper, Moovit, etc.
• Real-Time Transit Tracking: Displays vehicle locations and estimated arrivals.
• Accessibility Improvements: Helps people plan routes with wheelchair-accessible services.
• Urban Planning & Analytics: Helps cities analyze transit efficiency and optimize routes.
• Electric Bus & Fleet Management: Used for route optimization, energy consumption modeling, and predictive maintenance.

GTFS and Applied Analytics

Given your interests in applied analytics, GTFS can be used for:

• Transit Optimization – Data-driven analysis of bus schedules and demand.
• Sustainability Analysis – Evaluating electric bus deployments and energy efficiency.
• Workforce Training – Teaching GIS and transportation data analytics using GTFS datasets.
• Integration with PASS – If applicable, GTFS data could support optimized access to municipal services based on transit accessibility.