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GTFS Features

As the GTFS Specification grows and adapts to the current needs of transit systems to accurately and effectively communicate service information, the functions of the specification can become increasingly complex. GTFS Features are intended to offer a clear and definitive definition of functionalities that are enabled by the GTFS Schedule specification, helping transit agencies, vendors, consumers and researchers to answer the question: What can I do with GTFS?

The following groups of features explain the purpose of each feature as well as the files and fields associated with them, helping users to understand which data is needed in order to support a specific feature.

Base

The features included in this component provide the most basic and essential elements that a GTFS needs to represent a transit service. This includes entries for each individual trip, stop, arrival and departure times and service days among many other important pieces of information. Since all of the features included in the base component are essential to enable a working GTFS feed, all these features must be implemented together.

Accessibility

The Accessibility Component of GTFS contains multiple functionalities to provide information that helps end users navigate and access public transit services. Some of these features can be used to communicate the name and color of a route, confirm whether or not a trip and a station are wheelchair accessible, or providing translations in multiple languages.

Fares

The Fares component includes multiple features allowing the precise description of a wide variety of pricing structures and payment methods used by different transit agencies around the world, such as zone-based fares and reloadable prepaid cards. This helps users know the correct price applicable to their trip.

Pathways

The Pathways component contains features that allow the modeling of in-station, helping users navigate transit stations from beginning to end and across multiple levels. Some of these features make it possible to communicate the physical characteristics of each individual section of a path, estimate the time required to navigate them and to match this navigation information with the real-world wayfinding systems used in stations.

Metadata

The Metadata Component contains features providing further information regarding the producer of the GTFS feed and the feed itself. This includes the names of the organizations as well as contact information.

Flexible services

This component contains features that make it possible to communicate service information for flexible services with special operations that might not follow the common behavior of scheduled and/or fixed services.

Shapes

The Shapes component and feature communicates the path a vehicle follows along a route. This allows trip planning applications to display the path of a trip so users have a clear understanding of where the route operates in relation to their travel needs.

Transfers

The transfers component and feature allowes the description of transfers between different public transit services. This gives transit agencies the ability to clearly define the applicable rules for each transfer scenario, so that travelers can know if it’s possible to connect trips.

Frequency-based services

The frequencies component and feature can be used to represent frequency-based trips (e.g. a bus trips running every 10 minutes, a subway or metro service running every 2 minutes). This can be a useful alternative to providing specific timetables, acting as an alternative to some of the information included in the stop times Feature of the Base Component.