Notices

[leonardehrenfried]

Summary

Add a few files to allow attaching notices to the following entities:

• trip
• segments of a trip
• route
• stop

Notices are short messages that provide additional non-structured information about a the entity.

Describe the Problem

The problem is described in #620

Use Cases

To add additional custom messages to passengers that do not fit into other places in the specification.

Examples:

• "Bike reservation recommended"
• "Special Train - Dedicated fare is required"
• "Express Bus - Please note the special trip times"
• "Seasonal Trip - Runs during the XYZ festival"
• "Dining car available"
• "Pre-booking required for bicycle conveyance"

In apps this shows up like this:

Proposed Solution

I added three files:

• notices.txt
• notice_assignment.txt
• trip_segments.txt

The first two allow you to create and assign the messages to the relevant entities.

The third is a new type of entity, a "trip segment". It allows you to define parts of a trip that you can then apply a notice to. This is useful if the message doesn't apply to the entire trip.

Type of change

GTFS Schedule

• Functional Change
• Non-Functional Change
• Documentation Maintenance

GTFS Realtime

• Specification Change
• Specification Change (Experimental Field)

Additional Information

Proposed Discussion Period

I recommend reserving at least one month for discussion to ensure everyone has sufficient time to discuss the proposal.

Testing Details

• Consumer(s): OTP, MOTIS (tbc)
• Producer(s): MBTA (tbc)
• Estimated Testing Period: 6 months

Proposal Update Tracker

Date	Update Description
2026-05-21	Initial version

Checklist

• I have read and understood the GTFS Change process.
• I have read and understood the GTFS Guiding Principles.
• I understand the Role of Advocate and the Responsibilities attached to it.
• I have signed the Contributor License Agreement (CLA).
• I have ensured that this proposal is not covered by an existing Pull Request.

cc @sebastianknopf @alec-georgoff

[sebastianknopf]

If this is interesting for you, I actually convert GTFS data from raw ISA (a widely used proprietary format defined by IVU Traffic Technologies), which also contain notices. I could extend this converter for also rendering the notices according to this draft here. Just give me a sign.

[leonardehrenfried]

Well, at some stage we need some real data to implement this. If you are interested in producing it, that would be great.

I have to read up how to move this proposal into the testing stage but since discussion appears to have died down, I think I am calling a vote to test soon.

[leonardehrenfried]

So far I have only received heart emojis but no comments, presumably because we have disscussed this quite a bit in #620.

Therefore I would like to move forward by getting a maintainer for this proposal. Can someone provide a hint how I get one?

I myself can be the advocate as well as a consumer contributor with OTP. It sounds like @felixguendling might be a consumer, too.

What I am looking for is a producer advocate. @sebastianknopf and @jfabi have indicated that they can provide data for it. Are you interested in the role?

[sebastianknopf]

I think, the main discussion is already done in #620. In my option this is mainly a consumer driven topic and all representatives of consumers have mentioned their implications and we found a good solution.

I have a converter isa2gtfs which could be extended easily to generate some GTFS data according to this spec. Do you have a certain time, when you prefer to have the testing data? So I could spend some energy into generating some sample data.

[leonardehrenfried]

Well, there is a north American agency that is interested in producing data for it, but I suspect it will take them a few month to actually get around to doing it.

If you're faster than that, I would love to implement your feed.

[sebastianknopf]

I'm in the implementation yet. However, I found some restrictions in the base data:

• If have no data for generating trip_segments.txt automatically. I could only create some trip segments manually for testing.
• I also have no data for stop-assigned notices. I also could create manually, if needed.
• I have some 'general notices' in the data, which would be mapped to the routes then, as they're related to the routes at all.

I hope thats fine for you anyway. All other notices which will be generated are related to trips. I think, I will be ready until next week with the implementation of the converter.

[sebastianknopf]

Here you go... https://opendata.vpe.de/gtfs_notices.zip Was a little faster than I thought. This feed is a derivate of the Verkehrsverbund Pforzheim-Enzkreis GTFS feed. You can use if for testing as long as VPE is still existing. If you need an adaptions, just tell me, I'll try my best. The feed contains:

• Notices related to trips
• General notices related to routes

If you need additional realtime data, just take a look at opendata.vpe.de.