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California Transit Data Guidelines

Version 4.0 - December 11, 2024

Table of Contents

Purpose

The purpose of the California Transit Data Guidelines (“Guidelines”) is to communicate the specific criteria by which the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) determines whether the transit data produced by transit providers and vendors meets the qualitative needs of riders (and therefore trip-planning applications that deliver this data to riders), transit providers, regulators, and more. The Guidelines provide producers with a reference document for the characteristics of high-quality General Transit Feed Specification (“GTFS”) feeds, the data on transit agency websites and in other data formats. All transit providers and GTFS-producing vendors within the State of California are encouraged to work toward meeting the Guidelines in full.

Background

To support accurate and comprehensive information sharing within the transit industry, Caltrans promotes the use of the globally recognized General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) standard for transit trip planning. This standard ensures consistency and accessibility, helping to streamline transit operations and improve the rider experience.

Comprehensive, error-free GTFS is the foundation that enables transit providers to distribute critical information to their riders, whenever and wherever they need it. This includes information that can impact rider satisfaction and even help non-riders become riders. Universal, high-quality transit data transforms the experience of riding public transportation in California, empowering riders through dynamic, timely, and accurate information about transit networks. Achieving this goal of universal, high-quality transit data requires a focus on making sure that the GTFS data available from transit providers meets the needs of all riders.

The Guidelines, which were originally known as the California Minimum GTFS Guidelines, establish the information that all transit riders should have reliable access to (see the Guidelines Development Process for more information). This includes, but is not limited to, information about: 

  • Discovering, planning, and navigating transit;

  • Understanding transit options available for travel between two points at a specific date and time; 

  • Understanding when the next transit vehicle on their route is arriving; 

  • Understanding any travel disruptions that are expected to occur or are currently occurring; 

  • Understanding how much their trip will cost and how to pay their fare; and 

  • Understanding whether (and how) they can complete their trip via wheelchair.

Within the State of California, Caltrans encourages transit providers to work toward achieving compatibility with these Guidelines. Meeting the Guidelines will likely be an ongoing process for transit providers and transit technology vendors. Many of the changes required to achieve these data improvements may take months to achieve (such as incorporating established specs into a feed). In limited cases, it may even take years to realize these changes (e.g., when new technologies, vendors, and/or procedures are needed). Providers may have different pathways toward achieving the data quality standards. Providers will begin from different baselines than one another and may have the bandwidth to work on improving different aspects of their data at different times.

Caltrans staff are available to assess a transit provider’s current GTFS Schedule and GTFS Realtime data. Staff will provide free technical assistance to transit providers to help the provider reach GTFS Compliance and will also work with them on other aspects of the Guidelines. Learn about the Transit Data Check-Ins process.

Applicability

The Guidelines pertain to public transit operations. GTFS effectively supports all modes of scheduled fixed-route public transit: rail, bus, ferries, streetcars, subways, cable cars, trolleybuses, gondolas, and more. As of March 19, 2024, demand-response transit is also possible to model in GTFS with the official incorporation of the GTFS-Flex extension into the GTFS specification. Currently, GTFS best represents public transit operations with fixed routes and fixed schedules. Demand-responsive transit services are expected to be incorporated into the GTFS standard through the upcoming GTFS-Flex Extension, which some transit providers are already publishing.

Supporting an Interoperable Transit Technology Market

Beyond establishing best practices for constructing GTFS feeds, the Guidelines also specify other key open standards in which transit data should be conveyed. The use of open standards supports interoperability as defined by the Mobility Data Interoperability Principles (MDIP). MDIP is an international, coalition-led effort to support seamless integration of the hardware and software that transit providers rely on through the development and implementation of open standards.

Principles

These Guidelines were shaped by the principles of adopted transportation policy in California, as well as the desire to realize a transportation network that:

  • Provides the public with complete, correct, and up-to-date information (including standardized schedule, service, fare, access, and geographic data) to help riders of any ability plan journeys—as is nearly ubiquitous in the maps and apps on mobile phones

  • Provides riders with real-time vehicle arrival and departure information for making efficient decisions along their journey 

  • Makes information easy for any application developer to use by providing Schedule and Realtime GTFS data feeds that are both standardized and public 

  • Pursues industry standardization in order to provide better coordination, service delivery, and clear information for the transit industry—providers as well as their vendors—in the future

New Concepts in Version 4

Version 4 of the Guidelines seeks to provide further clarity on what aspects of data production are mandated, expected by Caltrans, recommended, and those that are experimental in nature. An added emphasis on achieving consistency between information found on agency websites and the data presented in GTFS data. Additional specificity is being added on topics of holiday service, stop data and transfers. Additional recommendations around adding information about service disruptions were also added.

Features

Within the Guidelines, recommendations are organized into groupings called “Features.” Each Feature represents a desirable characteristic of a high-quality GTFS feed. For transit providers, a GTFS feed will be considered to have a given Feature when it successfully meets the Guidelines for that Feature in the Guidelines Checklist below.

Guidelines for GTFS Schedule data are organized into the following Features:

  • Compliance

  • Accurate Accessibility Data

  • Best Practices Alignment

  • Demand-Responsive Completeness

  • Fare Completeness

  • Fixed-Route Completeness

  • Service Accuracy

  • Up-to-Dateness

Guidelines for Realtime data are organized into the following Features:

  • Compliance

  • Best Practices Alignment

  • Fixed-Route Completeness

  • Service Accuracy

Guidelines for Data Availability are organized into the following Features:

  • Feed Aggregator Availability

  • Technical Contact

  • Website Availability

Reaching GTFS Compliance

GTFS Compliance is a minimum threshold for your customers to see your service “on the map” in their trip-planning applications. Compliance is divided between GTFS Schedule data and GTFS Realtime data and is predicated on the core part of a transit provider’s service being covered.

GTFS Schedule Compliance

A provider is deemed to have achieved “Compliance” for their GTFS Schedule feed if it meets the recommendations for its respective Feature. Schedule feeds that meet the requirements to be considered “compliant” have all of the following characteristics:

  • The feed is publicly available at a stable URL;

  • The feed regularly passes the canonical validator with no errors;

  • The feed is accepted by major trip planners (i.e., Google Maps and Apple Maps); and

  • The feed is explicitly provided under an open data license.

Transit providers should prioritize Compliance before working on other GTFS Schedule Features. For transit providers that have already achieved Compliance, recommendations for the remaining GTFS Schedule Features can be found in Beyond GTFS Schedule Compliance below.

GTFS Realtime Compliance

A provider is deemed to have achieved “Compliance” for their GTFS Realtime feeds if they meet the recommendations for its respective Feature. Feeds that meet the requirements to be considered “compliant” have all of the following characteristics:

  • The feed is publicly available at a stable URL;

  • The feed regularly passes the canonical validators with no errors;

  • The feed is accepted by major trip planners (i.e. Google Maps and Apple Maps); and

  • The feed is explicitly provided under an open data license.

Transit providers should prioritize Compliance before working on other GTFS Realtime Features. For transit providers that have already achieved Compliance, recommendations for the remaining GTFS Realtime Features can be found in Beyond GTFS Realtime Compliance below.

Guidelines Checklist

The Guidelines Checklist provides all of the Transit Data Guidelines currently adopted by Caltrans. The development of each Guideline was informed by one or more Findings about data quality, and the Findings are listed next to each Guideline in the Checklist. Each Guideline belongs to exactly one Feature of a high-quality feed; a feed can be said to meet the recommendations of a given Feature when it meets all of the Guidelines for that Feature.

The Guidelines Checklist is organized by priority levels, with the recommendations for GTFS compliance listed first for both Schedule and Realtime feeds. This is followed by the other features listed alphabetically in the Beyond GTFS Compliance section for each feed type, and the Data Availability section at the end. The features in the checklist have been categorized into four groups based on their level of recommendation, which are explained in the following table:

Recommendation Level

Symbol

Note

NTD Mandate

The feature is mandated by the FTA for most NTD reporters. Transit agencies should confirm with their NTD validation analyst on whether they are subject to the mandate. They can also refer to NTD FAQ page for further clarification.

Caltrans Check

Cal-ITP monitors adherence to these checks on a regular basis and will notify transit agencies of failed checks. Caltrans has a mighty but limited staff, so we hope to expand the number of checks over time.

Recommended

The feature is not mandatory, but it is recommended to have and may be checked irregularly or researched by Cal-ITP. Transit riders will benefit from having these added elements of rider information.

Experimental

The feature is not mandatory and is in the experimental stage. We encourage transit agencies to explore various experimental GTFS features outlined on MobilityData’s website, as they have the potential to improve rider information.

 

Symbols in the checklist's Recommendation Level column further clarify the recommendations of each feature.

GTFS Compliance

Feature

Finding(s)

Guideline

Recommendation Level





Compliance (GTFS Schedule Data)

Access to GTFS Schedule data will be inadequate if that data is not made publicly accessible.

Valid GTFS Schedule data is regularly and publicly published.

Per the National Transit Database 2023 Policy Manual, NTD reporters are required to “maintain a public domain GTFS dataset… [at] a publicly accessible link.”

NTD Mandate, Caltrans Check

Data consumers and their applications rely on the ability to find updated information in a single, regular location.

GTFS Schedule data is published at a stable URL (permalink) from which it can be “fetched” automatically by trip-planning applications such as Google Maps, Apple Maps, and Transit App.

Per the National Transit Database 2023 Policy Manual, NTD reporters are required to “maintain a public domain GTFS dataset… [at] a publicly accessible link.”

NTD Mandate, Caltrans Check

There is a public, free-to-use, and open-source GTFS Schedule feed validator, which is available from MobilityData.


GTFS feed errors may diminish the ability of transit riders to successfully plan their trip and may reduce their overall confidence in taking transit.

The published feed regularly yields no errors as reported by the MobilityData GTFS Validator.

NTD Mandate, Caltrans Check

To the greatest extent practicable, customers should be able to plan transit trips in the application of their choice. If the GTFS Schedule feed is not known to trip-planning applications, riders will not be receiving the information they need to plan their trip.

The public datasets are being ingested* by trip-planning applications that serve the majority of their customers. This should include:

  • Google Maps; and/or

  • a combination of Apple Maps, Transit App, Bing Maps, Moovit, local Open Trip Planner services, or other web-based trip planners that use GTFS as its data source


*In order for datasets to be ingested, transit providers or their vendor must provide this data to trip-planning applications.


See “How do I publish my data to trip-planning applications?” for more information.

Caltrans Check

Caltrans offers transit agencies assistance with loading data into trip planners.

GTFS data should be retrievable without unreasonable legal requirements.

The transit provider’s website includes an open license that allows commercial use of GTFS data. See Caltrans’ model language for examples, or read more about what makes a license open.

Per the National Transit Database 2023 Policy Manual, NTD reporters are required to “maintain a public domain GTFS dataset… [at] a publicly accessible link.”

NTD Mandate, Caltrans Check

 

Feature

Finding(s)

Guideline

Recommendation Level











Compliance (GTFS Realtime Data)

Data consumers and their applications rely on the ability to find updated information in a single, regular location.

GTFS Realtime datasets are published at stable URLs (permalinks) from which they can be “fetched” automatically by trip-planning applications. To be complete, this includes all three standard types of Realtime feeds:

  • Trip Updates

  • Vehicle Positions

  • Service Alerts

Caltrans Check

Caltrans encourages all transit agencies to produce GTFS Realtime data. See section about Tools and Resources for how Caltrans can help.

Access to GTFS Realtime data will be inadequate if that data is not made publicly accessible.

GTFS Realtime datasets are publicly published. To be complete, this includes all three standard types of Realtime feeds:

  • Trip Updates

  • Vehicle Positions

  • Service Alerts

Caltrans Check

Caltrans encourages all transit agencies to produce GTFS Realtime data. See section about Tools and Resources for how Caltrans can help.

There is a public, free-to-use, and open-source GTFS feed validator, which is available from MobilityData.


GTFS feed errors may diminish the ability of transit riders to successfully plan their trip and may reduce their overall confidence in taking transit.

The public datasets regularly produce no errors as reported by the MobilityData GTFS Realtime Validator. This applies to all three standard types of Realtime feeds:

  • Trip Updates

  • Vehicle Positions

  • Service Alerts

Caltrans Check

Once a transit agency has a GTFS Realtime feed, Caltrans will assist the transit agency in ensuring good data quality.

To the greatest extent practicable, customers should be able to plan transit trips in the application of their choice. If GTFS Realtime feeds are not known to trip-planning applications, riders will not be receiving the information they need to plan their trip.

The public datasets are being ingested* by trip-planning applications that serve the majority of their customers. This should include:

  • Google Maps; and/or

  • a combination of Apple Maps, Transit App, Bing Maps, Moovit, local Open Trip Planner services, or other web-based trip planners that use GTFS as its data source


*In order for datasets to be ingested, transit providers or their vendor must provide this data to trip-planning applications.


See “How do I publish my data to trip-planning applications?” for more information.

Caltrans Check

Caltrans offers transit agencies assistance with loading data into trip planners.

GTFS data should be retrievable without unreasonable legal requirements.

The transit provider’s website includes an open license that allows commercial use of GTFS data. See Caltrans’ model language for examples, or read more about what makes a license open.

Caltrans Check

Beyond GTFS Compliance

Beyond GTFS Compliance, transit providers should choose improvements from among the remaining Features based on their own interest, priorities, funding, and capacity. The Features below are presented alphabetically. Features are grouped based on whether they apply to GTFS Schedule data, GTFS Realtime data, or Data Availability.

GTFS Schedule Data

Feature

Finding(s)

Guideline

Recommendation Level













Accurate Accessibility Data

Transit riders with wheelchairs and other mobility aids encounter distinct challenges in accessing transit, including uncertainty as to whether they can board and alight at particular locations using their devices.


Transit providers should support the ability of these riders to plan and take trips on transit by publishing information about the locations where wheelchair users can and cannot access the system in trip-planning applications.

The wheelchair_boarding field has a valid, non-empty, and non-null value for every entry in the stops.txt file.

See the Cal-ITP GTFS Wheelchair Accessibility Data Guide for more details.

Recommended

Transit riders with wheelchairs and other mobility aids encounter distinct challenges in accessing transit, including the uncertainty as to whether their devices can be used on specific scheduled trips.


Transit providers should support the ability of these riders to plan and take trips on transit by publishing information about the trips on which wheelchair users may or may not be able to travel in trip-planning applications.

The wheelchair_accessible field has a valid, non-empty, and non-null value for every entry in the trips.txt file.

See the Cal-ITP GTFS Wheelchair Accessibility Data Guide for more details.

Recommended

Audio annunciation of stop names is an important wayfinding tool for transit riders with visual impairments.


Transit providers should support the ability of these riders to conveniently and accurately plan and take trips on transit by ensuring that stop names will be pronounced correctly in trip-planning applications.

The tts_stop_name field should include correct pronunciation for all stop names in stops.txt that are commonly mispronounced in trip-planning applications.

Recommended

Transit riders with wheelchairs and other mobility aids encounter distinct challenges in accessing transit, including uncertainty about navigating between boarding zones and street level at stops.


Transit providers should support the ability of these riders to plan and take trips on transit by providing sufficient information for them to find accessible paths on and off transit using mobile applications.

Sufficient data is included within stops.txt, pathways.txt, and levels.txt to navigate to, from, and between any boarding zone to street level with varying physical abilities, including pathway_mode and stair_count where applicable. This includes but is not limited to any stops that use parent_station in stops.txt as well as all significant or named transit facilities where an infrequent visitor may be concerned about accessibility.

See the Cal-ITP GTFS Wheelchair Accessibility Data Guide for more details.

Recommended


Best Practices Alignment

MobilityData maintains a set of recommended practices developed by GTFS practitioners known as the GTFS Schedule Best Practices.


The Best Practices align with the Principles of the California Transit Data Guidelines.

Follow all GTFS Schedule Best Practices, defined as the items within the official GTFS Schedule Best Practices document, and all the SHOULD statements in the specification.

 

The MobilityData validator reflects GTFS Schedule Best Practices through WARNING notices.

Recommended

Demand- Response Complete

Transit riders should know what all their publicly available demand- response transit options are. (This does not include similar services provided by social service programs.)

The feed represents all demand- response transit services available to the general public under the transit provider’s purview. This includes:

  • Deviated fixed-route transit services

  • Completely demand- response transit services


See GTFS-Flex for more information.

Recommended

Transit riders that may qualify for paratransit or other specialized demand-response service should have information describing this service on the transit agency’s website. Key information detailing how to prove eligibility, the service area, reservation process and type of service should be provided.

All fixed-route transit agencies must clearly identify how they are providing paratransit services on their website. Any website describing demand-response service should include the following information:

  • A brief explanation of the eligibility process.

  • A description and/or map of the service area.

  • A description of the operating days of the week, hours of the day and all holidays.

  • A description of the reservation process that includes how reservations can be made and how far in advance reservations must be made.

  • The general type of service provided (curb-to-curb, door-to-door vs door-through-door, etc)

NTD Mandate, Recommended

This information will be required to be reported to the NTD in the 2024 annual reports.

Fare Completeness

Transit riders should have access to complete and accurate fare and payment information without leaving their trip-planning application of choice.

Fares data is published using the Fares v2 format and applicable following adopted and experimental files. As of the publish date of version 4 of the guidelines, the officially adopted files include:

  • fare_leg_rules

  • fare_products

  • fare_media

  • timeframes

  • fare_transfer_rules

  • areas

  • stop_areas

  • networks

  • route_networks

As of the publish date of version 4 of the guidelines, the experimental files include:

  • rider_categories

  • fare_capping

Caltrans Check,

Experimental

Fixed-Route Complete

Transit riders should know what all their fixed-route transit options are.

The feed represents all fixed-route transit services under the transit provider’s purview.

NTD Mandate, Caltrans Check

Transit Riders should have detailed information about special event service in order to discover how to take transit to these events.

Transit agencies should publish consistent information both on their website and in GTFS data describing special event service. Within the GTFS, this includes adding any extra trips, special routes and stops.

NTD Mandate, Caltrans Check


Service Accuracy

Service reliability is a major determining factor in rider satisfaction.


Transit riders should be able to rely on the service information they receive from transit providers.

Published GTFS Schedule datasets achieve a score of “passing” or “perfect” in all categories of the GTFS Grading Scheme v1. The GTFS Grading Scheme comprises a variety of manual checks that ensure GTFS data consistently represents information presented to riders on a transit agency’s website and in physical infrastructure. For example, the names of routes on a transit agency’s website should match the route names in the GTFS data. Other items included are route colors, stop names, stop positions and trip headsigns.

Caltrans Check

Accurate route mapping is an important tool for riders to plan and take trips on transit.

Shapes.txt is included within the feed, with valid route shapes for each trip. Shapes should be precise enough to show the right-of-way that the vehicle uses and not inaccurately exit the right-of-way.

Caltrans Check

Accurate mapping of stops is a critical process to ensure riders find where to board and deboard transit.

All actively-used transit stops must be mapped to within 25 feet of the exact boarding position for pedestrians.

Recommended

Accurate and consistent naming of stops is critical to ensure riders can confirm they are at the appropriate transit stop. Consistent naming also ensures efficient cross-agency transfers.

All transit stops within a transit agency’s GTFS Schedule feed should have a unique name that matches the name of the stop in printed materials.

Whenever a transit stop is shared with multiple transit agencies, the name of the stop should match exactly in each transit agency’s GTFS Schedule feed.

Recommended

Detailed mapping of significant transit facilities is essential to assist travelers in transferring between different routes.

All rail facilities and major transit centers should include a “Station” stop in the GTFS feed. Within these “Station” stops, all bays / platforms or tracks with active service should be mapped as individual stops that refer to the overall “Station” stop via the “parent_station” column.

Recommended

Transit riders should have a peace-of-mind when completing a trip with a transfer. Understanding whether the dynamics of a transfer can aid riders when trip planners can appropriately show various transfer situations.

Transit agencies should strive to include the transfers.txt file to adequately describe various transfer situations - especially important for timed transfers.

Recommended


Up-to-Dateness

Transit riders should be able to rely on the service information they see in their trip planner of choice using the transit provider’s GTFS feed. Having up-to-date schedule information in trip-planning applications available when major service changes occur is likely the most important time to have updated data as it will be accessed by regular as well as infrequent customers.


Trip-planning applications often require one (1) week to process new GTFS data, run it through their QA/QC processes, and resolve outstanding issues.

The GTFS Schedule feed should have active service for at least 30 days into the future at all times.


Note: Unplanned or short-notice service changes should be represented in GTFS Realtime unless you have coordinated with the major trip-planning applications to have them consume an updated GTFS Schedule.

Caltrans Check

Transit Riders should be able to have proper information about holiday service in order to plan for any needed trips on holidays. Having the ability to discover consistent information between a transit agency’s website and their GTFS data can increase rider trust in transit service delivery.

Transit agencies should create a dedicated part of their webpage that explains their service levels on each holiday. Transit agencies should also publish updates to their GTFS Schedule data that reflect these holiday service levels. The information between the website and GTFS data should be consistent.

Caltrans Check

Service disruptions happen, however riders deserve to know when they do. The earlier and more detailed that information on disruptions can be provided the better.

Planned service disruptions lasting longer than one week that are known more than a month in advance should be included within GTFS Schedule data.

Note: Short-notice service changes should be represented in GTFS Realtime unless you have coordinated with the major trip-planning applications to have them consume an updated GTFS Schedule.

Recommended

Realtime Data

Feature

Finding(s)

Guideline

Recommendation Level

Best Practices Alignment

While the GTFS specification allows for a great level of flexibility, providers should leverage the Features that are expected by data consumers and customers and follow a consistent set of community best-practices.

Follow all GTFS Realtime Best Practices, defined as the items within the official GTFS Realtime Best Practices document, and all the SHOULD statements in the specification.

 

The MobilityData validator reflects GTFS Realtime Best Practices through WARNING notices.

Recommended






Fixed-Route Complete

Transit riders should know the Realtime status for all fixed-route transit service.

Realtime feeds* represent all fixed-route transit service operated under the transit providers’ purview.


*Includes:

  • Trip Updates

  • Vehicle Positions

  • Service Alerts

Caltrans Check

Realtime trip data must be provided for the whole system so the customer is confident in making decisions along their journey.

100% of trip_ids for planned trips are consistent between the GTFS Schedule and all GTFS Realtime data.

Caltrans Check

Accurate and confident trip-planning also depends on receiving reliable information about any scheduled trips that get canceled. Information about any canceled trips should be communicated to riders.

100% of planned and/or operated trips are represented within the Trip Updates feed. This includes:


  • Scheduled trips

  • Canceled trips, which should be accounted for by either marking a trip as “CANCELED” or adjusting the estimated arrival times

  • Unscheduled trips, which should be accounted for by marking a trip as “ADDED”

Caltrans Check

Accurate and confident trip-planning depends on reliably receiving information about all in-service options. Information about all planned trips should be communicated to riders.

100% of trips marked as “Scheduled,” “Canceled,” or “Added” within the Trip Updates feed are represented within the Vehicle Positions feed.

Caltrans Check


Service Accuracy

Frequent status updates are needed to provide accurate trip-planning information to customers that they can rely on. Additional benefits from having high-precision updates can be obtained such as enabling transit signal priority based on vehicle position data.

Updates are published to Trip Updates and Vehicle Positions feeds at least once every 20 seconds, including updated timestamps and data for each trip and vehicle in service.

Caltrans Check

Service disruptions happen, however riders deserve to know when they do. The earlier and more detailed that information on disruptions can be provided the better.

Short-term service disruptions known less than one month in advance should be published wherever is appropriate in Realtime data.

Transit agencies should investigate the use of the experimental GTFS Realtime Trip Modifications where appropriate.

Longer-term disruptions known more than one month in advance and holidays service should NOT be published in Realtime data and should instead be published in GTFS Schedule data.

Recommended,

Experimental

Recommended for publishing alerts/cancellations of service, but the GTFS Realtime Trip Modifications is an experimental feature.

Data Availability

Feature

Finding(s)

Guideline

Recommendation Level






Feed Aggregator Availability

Many data consumers turn to popular global feed aggregators to look for GTFS Schedule data. Therefore, including the GTFS Schedule feed on these sites allows for a transit provider’s GTFS data to be more discoverable.

The GTFS Schedule dataset is published to global GTFS aggregators, including: transit.land.

Recommended

Many data consumers turn to popular global feed aggregators to look for GTFS Realtime data. Therefore, including GTFS Realtime feeds on these sites allows for a transit provider’s GTFS data to be more discoverable.

The links to the GTFS Realtime datasets are published to global GTFS aggregators, including: transit.land. To be complete, this includes:

  • Trip Updates dataset

  • Vehicle Positions dataset

  • Service Alerts dataset

Recommended

Many data consumers turn to popular global feed aggregators to look for GTFS Schedule data. Therefore, including the GTFS Schedule feed on these sites allows for a transit provider’s GTFS data to be more discoverable.

The GTFS Schedule dataset is included within the Mobility Database.

Recommended

Many data consumers turn to popular global feed aggregators to look for GTFS Realtime data. Therefore, including GTFS Realtime feeds on these sites allows for a transit provider’s GTFS data to be more discoverable.

The links to the GTFS Realtime datasets are included within the Mobility Database. To be complete, this includes:

  • Trip Updates dataset

  • Vehicle Positions dataset

  • Service Alerts dataset

Recommended







Technical Contact

A transit provider’s website should include a way for any data consumer to report errors they observe or ask questions so that all riders can benefit from these reports.

Either the transit provider’s website, or their regional partner’s website, identifies a specific technical contact or online form that can be utilized to triage inquiries about GTFS. This contact could be, for example, staff at the transit provider (whether a group email inbox such as “gtfs@agency.org”, a link to the main customer service workflow, or an individual) or a vendor contact. The online form could be part of a broader customer feedback form so long as it has the ability to be routed to staff capable of triaging GTFS data quality matters.


This contact or online contact form should be provided alongside the GTFS feeds on either the provider’s (or their regional partner’s) website.

Caltrans Check

Caltrans seeks to maintain relationships with agency staff including a point of contact for GTFS data quality matters.

A GTFS Schedule feed should ensure that app developers can report inconsistencies or errors they observe, so that all riders can benefit from these reports.

A technical contact or online contact form is provided within the published GTFS Schedule dataset in either the feed_contact_email or feed_contact_url fields within the feed_info.txt file.

Recommended

















Website Availability

A transit provider’s website should be seen as the source of truth for GTFS Schedule data. Many consumers look to websites for feed(s) and the provider putting this data on their website provides confidence that the consumer has the correct information.

A link to the GTFS Schedule dataset is published on the transit provider’s website. Transit providers can either publish the links to GTFS data directly or refer to a regional partner where the data can be found. These local and regional websites must be in agreement on the canonical version of each provider’s GTFS data.

Caltrans Check

A transit provider’s website should be seen as the source of truth for GTFS Realtime data. Many consumers look to websites for feed(s) and the provider putting this data on their website provides confidence that the consumer has the correct information.

The links to the GTFS Realtime datasets are included on the transit provider’s website. To be complete, this includes:

  • Trip Updates dataset

  • Vehicle Positions dataset

  • Service Alerts dataset


Transit providers can either publish the links to GTFS data directly on their websites or refer to a regional partner where the data can be found. These local and regional websites must be in agreement on the canonical version of each provider’s GTFS data.

Caltrans Check

It is reasonable for a provider to require authentication to access GTFS Realtime feeds by having users register for a unique API key that can be used during the process of making HTTPS requests for GTFS Realtime data. This can include allowing the API key to be accepted as a request parameter or request header.

If an API key is required to access any or all of the GTFS Realtime feeds, the registration process must be:


  1. Straightforward: Posting easily discoverable instructions to register for an API key on either the transit provider’s or a regional partner’s website.

  2. Quick: Automating the registration process so that approval is not contingent on the applicant’s intended use.

  3. Transparent: Specifying terms of use for the API key, including request limits and the process for reinstating an account that has exceeded rate limits.

Other means of authentication that require extra effort are discouraged. These include requiring users to frequently renew their API keys, requiring requests be made from specific IP addresses, or using authenticated request protocols other than the HTTPS protocol.

If the server restricts requests from different geographic origins, this should be publicly noted and there should be an automated process in place for ensuring that requests can still be made.

NTD Mandate, Caltrans Check

The NTD is asking for GTFS Schedule URLs that don’t have any authentication requirements in 2024 reporting.

Tools and Resources

Caltrans maintains several resources to support transit providers in their efforts to meet these Guidelines.

Frequently Asked Questions page

The Guidelines have their own FAQ page that addresses the most common questions raised and links out to further resources. The FAQ page is updated as needed, and we encourage GTFS data producers and consumers to check this page to see if your question is answered there.

Transit Data Check-Ins

Caltrans offers technical assistance to help providers address any identified gaps. This support includes analyzing where a provider’s feed does not meet the Guidelines, suggesting fixes and resources, and prioritizing next steps based on the provider’s needs. After achieving compliance, additional progress toward other Guidelines is driven by the provider’s preferences, available time, and resources.

For further assistance or to schedule a review, please contact us at hello@calitp.org.

 

Products and services

GTFS Schedule creation:

For California transit providers without existing GTFS Schedule data, Caltrans offers strategic guidance and direct assistance in producing this data. To get started, contact us at hello@calitp.org.

Starting on November 20, 2024, Caltrans and CalSTA invite select CA transit agencies to apply for a free Remix license. Remix is a single platform of integrated planning products. Remix connects flexible data analysis with on-demand and fixed route transit planning, scheduling, and GTFS editing, equipping transportation agencies with the most comprehensive planning toolkit to help them build better transit networks. Transit agencies that have been recipients of 5311 funding in the past 3 years are eligible for this offering. To learn more, visit the Remix / CalSTA website.

Transit agencies should consider using third-party applications to create and maintain GTFS Schedule data. Such tools can simplify the process by:

  • Managing multiple service periods with an easy-to-use calendar feature.

  • Automatically creating and updating shapes for the path of travel of transit routes.

  • Programmatically assigning fare policy rules.

  • Creation of timetables, sometimes via advanced scheduling and blocking functions.

  • Validation of data prior to publishing.

  • Ability to export to the GTFS format.

For more information or to explore additional tools, reach out to our team.

GTFS Realtime creation:

The State of California Department of General Services Procurement Division has recently issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) to establish Master Service Agreements (MSAs) for General Transit Feed Specification - Realtime (GTFS-Realtime) Services. The MSAs will allow public entities providing public transportation services (Transit Providers) to purchase both GTFS-Realtime software and hardware, as required, from the qualified vendors at pre-negotiated and competitively bid rates. The MSAs will last for a three-year term, with two optional two-year periods.

Transit Providers interested in buying off the GTFS-Realtime Services MSAs are invited to leverage Cal-ITP support. Cal-ITP welcomes the opportunity to outline the MSAs in further detail, assist in the development of a scope of work, and provide vendor management support. 

For other hardware and software that providers need in order to produce and maintain GTFS Schedule or GTFS Realtime, Cal-ITP invites providers to acquire these services through pre-negotiated, competitively bid contracts at camobilitymarketplace.org as they become available.

Helpdesk

Have a specific or exploratory question about transit data or strategy development? Caltrans’ team of technical experts is available at no cost to advise and support California transit providers. Contact hello@calitp.org to get started.