Feed Validation

After you request a feed export, Trillium staff will validate your feed prior to posting it to your fetch location or emailing you a new GTFS.

What is Feed Validation?

Feed validation is an automated process that catches several common errors in GTFS that must be resolved prior to publicly posting and sharing your GTFS with app developers.

Common Errors

Overlapping Blocks

If your agency uses Blocks, validation will catch any blocks that are used in 2 or more trips at the same time. In some cases, this may be caused by an incorrect use of Holiday Exceptions or Calendars.

Too Fast Travel Between Stops

If your Schedule has arrival times set that would require a vehicle to travel at very fast speeds (such as 80mph), this will be flagged in validation. While allowable for highway travel, very high speeds may indicate that your Schedule does not accurately represent your expected service times.

Time Travel Detected

Yes, that is what the error is called. When an arrival time in a Timed Patterns is earlier than the preceding arrival time, an error is generated.

Stop Too Far From Alignment

If you have moved your Stop locations, but not updated your shapes, you may run into an issue wherein your Alignments are now too far from your new Stop location. You may also be entirely missing Alignments in new or adjusted Stop Patterns.

Missing Last Stop Arrival Time:

When we validate a GTFS Feed, we check to make sure that the final scheduled Stop has an arrival time. We cannot validate a feed when an arrival time isn't included in a Timed Pattern’s last stop. If this is a request only stop, include an estimated time.

Other Errors

• Mistyped URLs (eg, ww.sampleagency.comm)
• Route Color/Text mismatch (Black Route Color with Black Text)
• Too Many Days without Service Exceptions (no breaks in schedule, such as weekends or holidays - can be ignored for agencies that run service 365 days a year.)