Google Transit (not quite, yet, but a start) on NJT

Thanks for mentioning that. As someone who's interested in transit and technology, it's interesting to be able to read exactly how this works.

Does anyone know if there's a way to access NJT's Google Transit feed via some other API?

No, there isn't one yet. I contacted them and they said they'd forward my mail to "the Interactive Services team." You should write in too. Better yet, if someone knows someone on the inside ...

NJ Transit is definitely behind the ball on this one. Maybe this will take them another six months. Other transit agencies already make their GTFS data available for public download:

- Portland (Oregon) Tri-Met: http://developer.trimet.org/GTFS.shtml
- (San Francisco) Bay Area Rapid Transit: http://www.bart.gov/stations/schedules/openformat.asp
- Sacramento Regional Transit: http://www.sacrt.com/gtfs.stm

No API, just raw data files. Actually, it's better this way -- an API would imply that Google has control, and Google has way too much control already.

For that matter, I don't understand why transit agencies had to wait for GTFS to begin making their data available in machine-parseable format -- it would've been almost as good just to dump a bunch of text files (or Excel files, which many schedules probably start life as). On the other hand, it's not until the last five years that the commercial services (eBay, Amazon, etc.) have adopted the API religion. We should perhaps expect the public sector to be 5-10 years behind the commercial sector, as usual.

Even with the new satellite images of NJ that show the stations, and the APIs from NJT, Google apparently still does not acknowledge the existence of RiverLINE stations.

So far, Google Transit has only gotten a data dump for NJ Transit rail operations. This does not include light rail such as RiverLINE. So any light rail that already exists is still there, but any omissions have not been corrected by this change.

P.S. There are no APIs right now, as I indicated in my earlier post. There are only data files. Maybe at some point in the future, so long as it's in addition to, not instead of.

this is so sweet. njt is really not behind the game on this one, the other agencies that did this are all on the west coast, and most of them are in google's own backyard.
kudos to njt (heh, it's about time their desire to have the newest gadgetry (think pla42ac and comet v) paid off) for doing this and i can't wait for them to put in all the buses.

A GTFS enthusiast had the bright idea of filing an Open Public Records Act request with NJ Transit. So the NJ Transit GTFS data files are now available.

According to the site, several transit agencies outside of the West Coast (Pennsylvania, Texas, Maryland) now make their GTFS data easily available as a download from their web sites. Not NJT. The guy who runs the site has to file an OPRA request every time the schedule changes. <shrug> There are transit agencies with an open mentality, and others with a closed mentality.

Hmm, it says to take a train from Netcong to Newark Penn. Then from Newark Penn to NYP. Newark Penn isn't on the MNE...

New Jersey Transit has finally released the GTFS files to any developer who registers. That only took two years ...

http://www.njtransit.com/tm/tm_servlet. ... SE_ID=2602
May 12, 2010
NJT-10-027
NEWARK, NJ — NJ TRANSIT today announced the launch of a new Developer Resources section of njtransit.com to provide third-party developers with direct access to service data for use in creating new trip-planning software applications. ...
Following a simple registration process, developers can download free schedule data in General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) format.

There are also some very reasonable restrictions, such as the all-important:

https://www.njtransit.com/mt/mt_servlet ... DevLoginTo
We require developers to update their data within 3 business days of a new file becoming available.

This may sound dumb, but what type of developers do they mean? Building or internet?

Also, Google Transit apparently couldn't figure out how to remove Great Notch from their system when I reported the error. (Its finally gone, but 4 months after reporting it)

Roadgeek Adam wrote:This may sound dumb, but what type of developers do they mean? Building or internet?

Also, Google Transit apparently couldn't figure out how to remove Great Notch from their system when I reported the error. (Its finally gone, but 4 months after reporting it)

"NEWARK, NJ — NJ TRANSIT today announced the launch of a new Developer Resources section of njtransit.com to provide third-party developers with direct access to service data for use in creating new trip-planning software applications. ...
Following a simple registration process, developers can download free schedule data in General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) format."

Roadgeek Adam wrote:Also, Google Transit apparently couldn't figure out how to remove Great Notch from their system when I reported the error. (Its finally gone, but 4 months after reporting it)

Great Notch still hasn't been removed from the ticketing system (at least prior to May 1). Tickets for Great Notch were still available at any TVM.

this is great, BART has had something similar for quite some time now which is why there are multiple iPhone apps allowing you to get BART schedules and trip planners without internet connections

SomervilleRailfan wrote:

M&Eman wrote:It has me crossing the Hudson River by foot to finish my sample trip from Maplewood to the World Trade Center.

Ask it for a routing from New York to London.

Maybe there's a walkway under the river, or better yet, the dual modes have that as their other mode, rail & water. Use the panto as your hanlebars as you jet ski the 60 ton loco across to manhattan. Oh, what about sandy hook to the battery via long branch?

- A