What is GTFS?

Post date: Sep 12, 2017 4:6:27 AM

GTFS stands for General Transit Feed Specification. It can be very literally interpreted as something that specifies transit details. If there is a company that manages the public transportation for a certain area, which there are many of across the globe, it can be beneficial for them to utilize a GTFS.

Essentially, a GTFS is a collection of transit information, including when the transportation system operates, where the routes are scattered, where the stops are located, how long the travel time is between stops, etc. All this information is documented with extreme precision and accuracy into a specific format. There are multiple text files that must be created and formatted in specific ways for the data to be then used in Google’s API.

There is also additional data that can be provided if a transit authority wanted to take advantage of the real-time GTFS capabilities. The transit authority could upload files in the real time, also in a very accurate and specific manner, that would include info such as the number of passengers on the transportation system, the current delay at certain stops, the current location of certain vehicles, specific alerts, etc.

The GTFS Static files look like this:

As you can see, they are normal text files. Let us look at what the format of the stops.txt is:

You can notice that the files are formatted in a very specific way and contain the relevant data to map out public transit trips. The Venice GTFS can be found at: http://actv.avmspa.it/sites/default/files/attachments/opendata/

The main resource for GTFS, as it pertains to Google API’s is:

https://developers.google.com/transit/gtfs/

My first thought is that creating GTFS files will take a lot of time for a transportation authority. I believe that a better, more readable format can be created in Excel. I could write VBA code to convert an excel file into GTFS format. I looked to see if anyone was doing it already and a company called “National RTAP” has a “GTFS Builder” that seems to do just that. This is a link to their site where they talk about how the “GTFS Builder” works:

http://nationalrtap.org/supportcenter/Builder-Apps/GTFS-Builder/GSG

References:

GTFS Static Overview | Static Transit | Google Developers. (n.d.). Retrieved September 10, 2017, from https://developers.google.com/transit/gtfs/