GTFS
Also: general transit feed specification, google transit, feed
The General Transit Feed Specification: a timetable as a zip of plain text files, the same shape the world over.
Example
Inside the zip
- stops.txt
- Every station and platform
- routes.txt
- Each line
- trips.txt
- Every train of the timetable
- stop_times.txt
- When each train calls where
- calendar.txt
- Which days it runs
GTFS is how most of the world’s buses, trams and trains publish their timetables. It’s a zip file of spreadsheets saved as plain text, each with a fixed name and fixed columns.
One file lists the stops, one the routes, one every trip, and the biggest says when each trip calls at each stop. Others say which days a trip runs.
Because every operator uses the same files, an app that can read one GTFS timetable can read them all. Caltrain’s and BART’s both come this way.
In Trainiac
The planned times of every Bay Area journey.