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Reach more riders and improve public transit with GTFS

GTFS serves as the backbone of modern transit systems, enabling agencies to provide accurate and up-to-date information to riders, app developers, and policymakers. Below, we'll explore the various benefits of GTFS and how it enhances public transit worldwide.

Widely Used & Globally Adopted

Over 10,000 agencies in 100+ countries use GTFS, ensuring consistent data for multi-agency trips and simplifying travel across regions. Here's how GTFS facilitates global reach and seamless trips:

  • Standardized Data: GTFS provides a standardized format for transit data, ensuring consistency across agencies and regions, simplifying travel planning for riders.
  • Multi-Agency Trips: GTFS enables agencies to share consistent, reliable data, facilitating seamless travel experiences for riders traveling across multiple transit systems.

Community-Driven Development and Freely Accessible

GTFS thrives on community collaboration, ensuring its continuous evolution and relevance, with a primary focus on passenger-facing information within the specification.

  • Open Collaboration: GTFS operates as an open data standard, allowing anyone to contribute changes or improvements.
  • Guided Evolution: The specification evolution is overseen by an independent nonprofit organization called MobilityData, and its changes are guided by the principles of ease of use, backwards-compatibility, and pragmatic change.
  • Community-driven Development: The GTFS specification undergoes continuous refinement through input and review from the community, facilitated on platforms like GitHub and Slack.

Get Involved Active Projects Guiding Principles

Simple and Easy to Use

GTFS fosters collaboration between transit agencies by enabling easy data exchange, promoting smoother service integration, and information sharing. Here's how GTFS simplifies data sharing:

  • Ease of Integration: GTFS makes it easy for agencies to get started with a simple data structure using common file formats like .txt and GeoJSON, fostering collaboration and interoperability.
  • Backwards compatible: when updating the specification, existing feeds remain valid and maintain compatibility with existing parsers.

GTFS can probably do more than you think

While schedule information is at its core, GTFS also offers additional features that enhance the transit experience, such as:

  • Fares: GTFS can include fare information for accurate cost breakdowns across routes and journey options.
  • Flexible services: GTFS can describe demand-responsive options like dial-a-ride, route deviations, and other services that do not follow the common behavior of scheduled and/or fixed service.
  • Pathways: GTFS can model large transit stations, helping riders navigate from station entrances and exits to the location where they board or disembark from a transit vehicle.

Learn more about GTFS Features

Improved Rider Experience

Here's how GTFS empowers riders and enhances their experience:

  • Up-to-Date Information: GTFS provides riders with access to schedules, routes, and stop information, facilitating informed travel decisions.
  • Reduced Wait Times: GTFS Realtime offers live updates on vehicle locations, reducing wait times and enhancing the overall travel experience.

Access to a Wide Range of Applications

By adopting GTFS, agencies reach a wider audience through the vast pool of app developers utilizing the standardized data format. Here's how GTFS expands the user base for apps and services:

  • Expanded App Reach: Access to GTFS data allows app developers to reach a wider audience of transit riders, enhancing the usability and functionality of transit apps.
  • Interoperability: Open standards facilitate seamless data exchange between transit agencies and app developers, promoting interoperability and collaboration.