General Transit Feed Specification Weblinks for U.S. Fixed Route Services

A collection of weblinks to General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) datasets for U.S. public transit agencies, required by the Federal Transit Administration for fixed route services as of Report Year 2023. The dataset is published by the Department of Transportation and includes links for bus, rail, ferryboat, and trolleybus modes, with last metadata update on 2026-03 07. Each GTFS feed contains at least seven required files detailing agency information, stops, routes, trips, and schedules.

Use Cases

• Mapping transit networks and stops based on the required GTFS stops.txt file.
• Analyzing service schedules and frequencies based on the trips and stop_times files.
• Visualizing route geometries and service areas based on the optional shapes.txt file.
• Comparing agency service characteristics and coverage based on the agency.txt and routes.txt files.

Strengths

• Data is mandated by the Federal Transit Administration for fixed route modes, suggesting a formal reporting standard.
• Covers multiple transit modes including Bus, Rail, Bus Rapid Transit, Commuter Bus, Ferryboat, and Trolleybus.
• Metadata includes validation status flags (Validated Date vs. Modified Date) for link quality control.

Limitations

• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Some links may require an API key, and host website errors are possible as noted in the description.

Provenance

Source

Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration.

Collection Method

Collected from transit agencies as a requirement for the National Transit Database reporting.

Time Range

Report Year 2023 onward, with notes for waivers granted in Report Year 2024.

Freshness

Last metadata update was 2026-03-07 08:49:58.093637.

Geography

United States, covering transit agencies that report to the FTA.