GTFS Realtime is an extension of the General Transit Feed Specification(GTFS) that gives public transportation agencies the capability to provide real time updates about their fleet. Information such as expected time of arrival, trip delays/cancellations, service alerts/notifications, and vehicle location can be provided using GTFS real time. GTFS realtime makes use of Protocol Buffers, a language-neutral, platform-neutral, mechanism to serialize structured data in a much smaller file size – making its transmission faster and more efficient. GTFS-RT as a standard is not yet as widely adopted as static GTFS, with a number of transit agencies offering their own format in sharing real time data as well as ‘rival’ formats such as Service Interface for Real Time Information (SIRI) available. GTFS RT also presents much more complex challenges than providing static GTFS as the element of ‘speed’ comes into play and management of server resources, latency, and software efficiency is critical.
EACOMM can guide your Transit Agency through the process of publishing GTFS-RT data; from planning the roll-out of GPS devices in your vehicles, developing or selecting a Fleet Management System, to making sure the GTFS-RT feed is accepted and validated by various Transit Planning Apps.
EACOMM has developed and currently maintains GTFS RT feeds for Australia, Singapore, Philippines and Indonesia.
