Actionfigure Blog · GTFS Ops
Featuring Actionfigure co-founder and CEO Matt Caywood and SVP of Partnerships and Strategy Tony Hudgins.
Riders find transit the way they find everything else. On their phone. If your service shows up in Google Maps, Apple Maps, and the trip planners, it exists to a rider. If it does not, for most people it may as well not be running.
The data behind that is GTFS, and keeping it accurate is an ongoing operation. We call it GTFS Ops. We put the story on film: Matt Caywood and Tony Hudgins on what it takes.
The blind spot most agencies share
Small and mid-size agencies hit the same wall, and it is not their fault. They are operationally focused: keeping drivers on route, getting a stranded shuttle running again. Building GTFS is a different craft, with schedule architecture, turn-by-turn stop relationships, hosting, and maintenance.
“Many of the people that we work with are probably IT people or operations people. They have no skill set for building GTFS.” Tony Hudgins, SVP of Partnerships and Strategy.
GTFS Ops adds that layer, working alongside the team.
Maintenance is the whole game
Matt’s number one best practice is simple: keep the feed current. Skip it and the network shifts underneath you, the data goes stale, and riders feel it first. A bus runs but never shows in the app. A stop moves but the map does not.
Proof: five routes, seven vehicles
A rural agency came to us with five routes, seven vehicles, and badly outdated data. We rebuilt the feed from the drivers’ own turn sheets, turn left at this stop, turn right at that one. Then the rebuilt data caught something they did not expect: the buses could not physically make several time points on their planned schedule. We flagged it and fixed it before the schedule went live. Good transit data catches problems before your riders do.
End to end
“We’re the only company in the world that goes from the data creation stage of GTFS, hand in hand with the agency, all the way to displaying it on mobile or screens.” Matt Caywood, Co-founder and CEO
Google Maps will show your agency. It will not help you build the data behind it. Actionfigure runs GTFS Ops end to end, for transit agencies, universities, healthcare systems, and shuttle operators alike.