Adding NewRoutes to GTFS Realtime

[cleveramarquet]

Describe the problem

Currently, GTFS Realtime lacks a standard way to provide information about new transit routes that do not yet exist in the static GTFS schedule. This creates a gap for riders when agencies introduce temporary or brand-new service that hasn't been included in the latest static feed update.

Use cases

1. Providing information for new routes that have been launched but are not yet present in the current static GTFS dataset.

2. Displaying route details like names, descriptions, and colors for these new services to ensure riders have complete information.

Proposed solution

Introduce a NewRoutes message to the GTFS Realtime FeedEntity. This message will include a list of Route objects, each containing fields like route_id, agency_id, route_short_name, route_long_name, route_desc, route_type, route_url, route_color, and route_text_color. This allows real-time feeds to define the properties of new routes dynamically.

gtfs-realtime.proto.txt

Additional information

As part of a joint effort between Clever Devices and Transit App, we would like to move forward with the NewRoutes use case specifically of the GTFS-ServiceChanges_v3.1 proposal. We saw the need for a more focused specification tailored to consistent and accurate representation of bus bridges or additional service. This change allows producers to define new, temporary, or dynamic routes entirely within the real-time feed.
For these reasons, we came up with GTFS-NewRoutes. In many real-time scenarios—such as emergency bus bridges, unplanned shuttle services, or dynamic on-demand routing—the static GTFS does not contain the necessary route_id. Without this change, agencies are forced to "reuse" existing IDs or omit information. By allowing a Route to be defined in the feed, consumers can display accurate names, colors, and branding for service that didn't exist when the static feed was published.

We welcome your feedback either here, or directly in the Google doc! Note that GTFS-NewRoutes builds on GTFS-ServiceChanges v3.1 and GTFS-TripModifications and uses some parts of it. This proposal doesn’t prevent the remaining features in that specification from being adopted in the future.

[leonardehrenfried]

@hbruch and I have written a private extension to add new routes via GTFS-RT and it has been implemented in OpenTripPlanner.

We are highly interested in getting this into the standard.

[felixguendling]

Hi @cleveramarquet this sounds interesting and solves a problem we see in MOTIS that ADDED trips often don't have colors, route_type, etc. except if they are using an existing route. Since you probably deal with this use case already somehow: do you have some public endpoint that implements those proposed changes and can be used for testing?

[cleveramarquet]

Hi @leonardehrenfried, that's great to hear! Having OpenTripPlanner's support and real-world implementation experience will be invaluable for this proposal. It would be very helpful if you could share any specific lessons learned from your private extension—particularly if there were fields or structures you found necessary that aren't currently in our proposal. Looking forward to your input on the Google Doc!
and hi @felixguendling as well, you've hit on exactly why we're pushing for this—filling those 'information gaps' for added trips is a primary goal. To answer your question: we are currently in the process of setting up a public endpoint for testing purposes. I will share the link here as soon as it's ready. In the meantime, feel free to review the proposed .proto changes attached to the description.

[leonardehrenfried]

Seems like many members of the community agree about the need for this feature - great!

For completeness, here is our proto extension file: https://github.com/opentripplanner/OpenTripPlanner/blob/dev-2.x/gtfs-realtime-protobuf/src/main/proto/mfdz-realtime-extensions.proto

I will write a few comments in the Google Doc.

[BethBeveridge]

Hi All, this is fantastic @leonardehrenfried you have opened this discussion, thank you

I am from Transport for NSW (TfNSW) in Australia and we have been looking at options for dynamic routeing, creating adding new routes with the new route objects you listed and a few more on the day in GTFS Realtime FeedEntity as well.

Dynamic routeing on the day is our next big step and have a few project underway to generate route in source systems but how to include in GTFS Realtime FeedEntity so we will be review the doc .proto and provide input. When it gets to the point with endorsement here we may also be to be a producer/consumer for the change process adoption.