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Legacy Fares (v1)

Legacy Fares (v1) is an earlier, basic GTFS fares model that supports limited fare elements. It can only model origin to destination, zone-based, and route-based fare structures, along with a minimal set of transfer rules. While it remains a feature in GTFS for backward compatibility purposes, transitioning to Fares (v2) is recommended, as it offers comprehensive ticketing, payment information, and supports a much broader range of fare structures and rules.

Composed of fare_attributes.txt and fare_rules.txt, Legacy Fares (v1) has historically been the official method for describing fare information in GTFS. However, the two files are limited in the breadth of factors they can efficiently describe, and are ambiguous to implement.

Define an agency’s fare rules

A trip on the Toronto Transit Commission’s subway network costs $3.20 CAD if riders pay using the PRESTO card. Riders can also transfer to other subway, streetcar, or bus routes operated by the TTC within a two-hour window.

This service can be represented using the files fare_attributes.txt, fare_rules.txt, and transfers.txt. The first file, fare_attributes.txt describes the agency’s fares, below is an example for the presto fare:

fare_attributes.txt

fare_id,price,currency_type,payment_method,transfers,transfer_duration
presto_fare,3.2,CAD,1,,7200
  • The price of the fare is listed under price and currency_type
  • Riders have to pay their fare at the station fare gates before boarding the subway. This is represented by payment_method=1
  • The field transfers is left blank to represent unlimited transfers
  • The field transfer_duration corresponds to the 2-hour transfer window (in seconds)

The second file, fare_rules.txt assigns fares to journeys by tying a fare to a route as well as an origin/destination on that route.

For that, two subway lines are defined below in routes.txt:

routes.txt

agency_id,route_id,route_type
TTC,Line1,1
TTC,Line2,1

In this example, transfers at Bloor-Yonge Station are modeled. For that, this station is modeled as two separate stops, the first is Bloor Station which is served by Line 1, and the second is Yonge Station, which is served by Line 2. Both have zone_id=ttc_subway_stations in order to group all subway stations in a single fare zone.

stops.txt

stop_id,stop_name,stop_lat,stop_lon,zone_id
Bloor,Bloor Station,,43.670049,-79.385389,ttc_subway_stations
Yonge,Yonge Station,,43.671049,-79.386789,ttc_subway_stations

In fare_rules.txt, the PRESTO fare is associated with both subway lines and stations using the following relationships:

  • For fare_id=presto_fare, riders can travel between any two stations on Line 1 (route_id=line1) and origin_id=ttc_subway_stations and destination_id=ttc_subway_stations.

fare_rules.txt 

fare_id,route_id,origin_id,destination_id
presto_fare,line1,ttc_subway_stations,ttc_subway_stations
presto_fare,line2,ttc_subway_stations,ttc_subway_stations

The third file, transfers.txt defines transfer points between different routes. To model transfers at Bloor-Yonge station, two entries are required:

transfers.txt 

from_stop_id,to_stop_id,from_route_id,to_route_id,transfer_type
Bloor,Yonge,line1,line2,0
Yonge,Bloor,line2,line1,0
  • The first models transfers from Line 1 to Line 2 using from_route_id and to_route_id from Bloor Station to Yonge Station
  • The second models transfers from Line 2 to Line 1 using from_route_id and to_route_id from Yonge Station to Bloor Station
  • The value for transfer_type is 0 since there are no specific requirements or considerations for transfers

Example source