Fares: Introduction¶
Fares (also known as Fares v2) is a GTFS Schedule feature that standardizes rider-facing fare information, allowing users to discover ticketing and pricing options based on the fare structures and conditions of each transit system and its connections.
Key Fares (v2) features include Fare Products, Fare Media, Rider Categories, Route-Based Fares, Zone-Based Fares, Time-Based Fares, and Fare Transfers.
GTFS Fares (v2) continues to evolve as a community-driven project, developed under the working name GTFS-Fares v2. For guidance on modeling experimental features, refer to the full proposal document. While GTFS maintains backward compatibility, adopting Fares v2 over Legacy Fares (v1) is recommended to ensure future scalability and alignment with ongoing specification developments.
This guide will demonstrate how to model common fare structures using Fares (v2). We begin by introducing the fare features supported in Fares (v2) and the corresponding files used for each. Then, we present a real-world example that will be modeled in later sections.
Fares features and their files¶
GTFS Fares (v2) can model various fare features found in common fare structures.
| Feature | Description | Associated Files |
|---|---|---|
| Fare Media (see example) |
The supported media that can be used to hold and/or validate a fare product (eg: cash, contactless, physical card, etc.). | fare_media.txt, fare_products.txt |
| Fare Products (see example) |
The type of fares (i.e. single-trip fare, monthly pass, transfer fees, etc.) offered by a transit agency to access a service. | fare_products.txt |
| Rider Categories (see example) |
Represents the different groups of riders, such as seniors, students, children, and adults, eligible for specific fare rates based on their age, status, or needs. Trip planning applications can use this information to display the available categories and show the default fare set by the agency providing the feed. | rider_categories.txt, fare_products.txt |
| Route-Based Fares (see example) |
Assigns different fares for specific groups of routes, also known as route networks. Flat rate route-based fares are the most basic fares. | fare_products.txt, fare_leg_rules.txt, networks.txt, route_networks.txt |
| Zone-Based Fares (see example) |
Represents zone-based systems where a specific fare applies when traveling from one particular zone to another. A zone can be defined as a set of stops. | fare_products.txt, fare_leg_rules.txt, areas.txt, stop_areas.txt |
| Time-Based Fares (see example) |
Assigns fares for specific time-of-day or day-of-week, such as peak and off-peak fares and/or weekend fares. | fare_products.txt, fare_leg_rules.txt, timeframes.txt |
| Fare Transfers (see example) |
Rules applicable when transferring between legs (or individual travel segments). They allow the calculation of a total journey cost that includes free or discounted transfers. | fare_products.txt, fare_leg_rules.txt, fare_transfer_rules.txt |
For more detailed information on these features and the files included for each feature, check out the Fares features page.
Relations between files¶
The Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD) diagram below describes how Fares (v2) files work together.
Presenting the example¶
To illustrate how to model fares using Fares (v2), this guide uses a real-world transit agency as an example. To keep things concise, we focus on specific aspects of that agency's fare structure. While this guide includes an example of a one-way fare product, the same modeling process applies to other fare products such as daily and monthly passes.
Example transit system:
- TransLink (Vancouver)
Translink (Vancouver)¶
Translink is a public transit agency in Vancouver. As of November 2024, Vancouver uses a zone-based fare system (more information can be found here), some of its elements used in this guide are summarized in the following table:
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Fare Media | - Cash - Compass Ticket (Paper ticket) - Compass Card (Physical transit card) - Contactless payment cards and mobile wallets |
| Bus Fare | Flat fare of CAD 3.20. |
| Daily pass | - Costs CAD 11.50 for buses and all zones. - Valid only on Compass Card or Compass Ticket. |
| SkyTrain and SeaBus Fares | Zone-based fare depending on the number of zones crossed. - Zone 1: Vancouver. - Zone 2: Burnaby, Richmond, North Vancouver. - Zone 3: Surrey, Coquitlam. |
| Airport AddFare | - An additional CAD 5.00 for SkyTrain trips originating from Sea Island. - Travel between the three Sea Island stations is free. |
| Weekend and Evening Fares | - All fares are Zone 1 (bus flat rate of CAD 3.20) from 6:30 PM to 3:00 AM and on weekends. - The fares for journeys starting from Sea Island still have an additional fare. So from 6:30 PM to 3:00 AM and on weekends, their fare becomes 5.00 + 3.20 = CAD 8.20. |
| Transfers | - 90 minute transfers are only available for non-cash fare media - Free between buses during this period. - Free within the same fare zone supported by the fare. - Additional fare (called AddFare) applies when transferring to higher fare zones - The difference between the new higher fare and the previous lower fare is charged from the rider. Basically, the difference between both fares is ADDED to the initial price. |
| Rider Categories | Adult and Concession categories. - Adult is the default category. - Disabled, senior, & youth riders are represented by the concession category. |
The West Coast Express is also zone-based (another set of zones). For simplicity, it will not be included. Nevertheless, its Zone-Based Fares can be modeled in a similar manner to SkyTrain.
This guide mentions only the Adult category in TransLink sections, except in the Rider Categories section, which also includes the Concession category.
Glossary¶
The tables below present the concepts of commonly used terms in this guide and in Fares related discussions.
| Concept | Description |
|---|---|
| Leg | A single continuous segment of a journey taken on a specific service or route, typically between two stops, with no transfer. |
| Sub-journey | Two or more legs that comprise a subset of a journey. |
| Journey | Overall travel from origin to destination, including all legs and transfers in between. |
| Concept | Description |
|---|---|
| Leg Group | A set of one or more legs that share specific common attributes or fare conditions as defined in the context of the fare_leg_rules.txt file. |
| Fare leg rule | Fare eligibility criteria to complete travel on a single leg or effective fare leg, following filter conditions. |
| Network | A group of routes that have similar fare structure for the purpose of matching fare leg. A network of routes can be: All the routes of an agency. Routes of the same mode (e.g. subways, buses). Routes of a similar purpose (e.g. Rural, urban). |
| Fare zones | Areas used to determine pricing based on travel between or within zones. Fare zones can be defined in GTFS as areas (sets of stops). |
| Timeframe | A defined period during which a specific fare applies (e.g., weekdays from 6am to 9am, rush hour, weekends). |
| Timeframe group | A collection of timeframes that are treated similarly for fare rules or pricing (e.g., all off-peak hours). |
| Fare transfer rule | Transfer eligibility for a transfer cost between legs, following filter conditions. |
| Effective Fare Leg | A sub-journey of two or more legs that should be treated as a single leg for the purposes of matching against rules in fare_leg_rules.txt for the purposes of fare calculation. |
| Filter conditions | Constraints or variables of travel that determine an available cost of a fare leg rule, fare product, or fare transfer rule. |