Using Your GTFS Feed

Because there is no direct export of specific data from GTFS Manager, here are some helpful ways you can share and access different parts of your GTFS dataset outside GTFS Manager.

Share and Download Your GTFS

If Trillium is hosting your GTFS feed (most common), you can download it at any time from your static fetch location. If you are unsure what this URL is, email support@trilliumtransit.com to get it.

You can also search for your feed from the Transit.Land feed registry, which pulls directly from the same source.

You can download your GTFS and share that .zip file or share the URL link. Because we believe in open and accessible GTFS, there is no password protection on downloading from your fetch location.

Understanding the GTFS .zip file

Your GTFS comes packaged in a .zip file, which can be opened on most operating systems using built-in software. If you do not have a way of opening this type of file, download WinZip (for PC/Windows or Mac)

Once opened, the file folder contains a selection of .txt files (text files) that contain all the necessary data from GTFS Manager that data consumers (like Google Maps or Transit App) use, in a format that is machine-readable.

To open these files in a product like Excel, change the file extension (the .txt) to .csv. In some cases where significant values in numbers (such as distance traveled between stops, in stop_times.txt,) or diacritics (for non-English language feeds), it may be better to open the file in Excel as a .txt file and converting text-to-columns. Learn more about this feature for Excel.

Get Information About Your Stops

The most common request we receive is for a list of Stops. The file stops.txt contains the following information:

• Stop ID (internal, Trillium-generated id)
• Stop Name
• Stop Code (external, agency-generated id, if any)
• Latitude and Longitude
• Zone (if any)
• Other uncommon fields

This file does not contain information about which Routes Stops are used on, how frequently Stops are used, or what times Stops are serviced at.

Get Information About Your Routes

While routes.txt does not contain any information about stops serviced or times serviced on a Route, it does contain a list of your Routes along with

• Route Name (long and short)
• Route URL
• Route Color
• Other uncommon fields

Other Useful Files

Runcut.txt

Depending on your AVL provider (if any), you may need to produce the file runcut.txt. This is automatically generated based on your GTFS configuration. It is not manually entered in GTFS Manager. If there are errors in runcut.txt, reach out to support@trilliumtransit.com and share details about where the errors are and the nature of the errors.

Timetables.txt and Timetable_Stop_Order.txt

These are not files that contain schedule information. These files are used in generating Schedules using a tool called GTFS-to-HTML. These files are generated using the Timetables Display feature and require Trillium staff to perform after export conversion to HTML. This is a great way to efficiently and accurately generate ADA-accessible and readable timetables for your website. To learn more about generating HTML timetables using GTFS Manager, email support@trilliumtransit.com.

Trips.txt and Stop_Times.txt

These two files, combined with routes.txt and stops.txt (and maybe calendars.txt, depending on if multiple calendars are in use), can be used to build out spreadsheets of trips and their service times. Because this information is spread across multiple files, some Excel/spreadsheet knowledge of commands such as vlookup and filtering is helpful.