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➡️ Example Output | Online Version | Installation | Configuration ⬅️

GTFS-to-blocks



Reads transit data from GTFS and exports all trip segments sorted by block_id and their departure times in CSV format.

NPM


GTFS-to-blocks exports all trip segments sorted by block_id and their departure times to a CSV file.

What is a block? A block is a group of trips that are part of the same transit service usually operated by a single vehicle. Two trips which overlap in time can't be part of the same block as a vehicle can only operate one trip at a time.

This tool is useful for auditing all blocks for a specific day. By reviewing trips grouped by block in chronological order, you can ensure that no trips overlap for a specific block and find gaps where additional trips could be added.

Example Output

Block ID,Trip ID,Days,Departure Location,Arrival Location,Departure Time,Arrival Time
1,t_1960920_b_33130_tn_0,Mon-Fri,Oakland Ferry Terminal,San Francisco Ferry Building Gate G,06:30:00,06:55:00
1,t_1989797_b_33130_tn_0,Mon-Fri,San Francisco Ferry Building Gate G,Oakland Ferry Terminal,07:05:00,07:30:00
1,t_1960965_b_33130_tn_0,Mon-Fri,Oakland Ferry Terminal,San Francisco Ferry Building Gate G,07:35:00,08:00:00
1,t_1989799_b_33130_tn_0,Mon-Fri,San Francisco Ferry Building Gate G,Oakland Ferry Terminal,08:10:00,08:35:00
1,t_1960967_b_33130_tn_0,Mon-Fri,Oakland Ferry Terminal,San Francisco Ferry Building Gate G,08:40:00,09:05:00
1,t_1960893_b_33130_tn_0,Mon-Fri,San Francisco Ferry Building Gate E,Richmond Ferry Terminal,09:55:00,10:30:00
1,t_1960879_b_33130_tn_0,Mon-Fri,Richmond Ferry Terminal,San Francisco Ferry Building Gate E,10:40:00,11:15:00
2,t_1962122_b_33130_tn_0,Mon-Fri,Alameda Seaplane Lagoon Ferry Terminal,San Francisco Ferry Building Gate F,07:00:00,07:20:00
2,t_1989798_b_33130_tn_0,Mon-Fri,San Francisco Ferry Building Gate G,Oakland Ferry Terminal,07:30:00,07:55:00
2,t_1960966_b_33130_tn_0,Mon-Fri,Oakland Ferry Terminal,San Francisco Ferry Building Gate G,08:00:00,08:25:00
2,t_1989800_b_33130_tn_0,Mon-Fri,San Francisco Ferry Building Gate G,Oakland Ferry Terminal,08:35:00,09:00:00
2,t_1960968_b_33130_tn_0,Mon-Fri,Oakland Ferry Terminal,San Francisco Ferry Building Gate G,09:05:00,09:30:00
2,t_1962145_b_33130_tn_0,Mon-Fri,San Francisco Ferry Building Gate F,Alameda Seaplane Lagoon Ferry Terminal,09:40:00,10:00:00
2,t_1962143_b_33130_tn_0,Mon-Fri,Alameda Seaplane Lagoon Ferry Terminal,San Francisco Ferry Building Gate F,10:10:00,10:30:00
2,t_1960934_b_33130_tn_0,Mon-Fri,San Francisco Ferry Building Gate G,Main Street Alameda Ferry Terminal,11:20:00,11:40:00
2,t_1993271_b_33130_tn_0,Mon-Fri,Main Street Alameda Ferry Terminal,Oakland Ferry Terminal,11:45:00,11:55:00
2,t_1962159_b_33130_tn_0,Mon-Fri,Oakland Ferry Terminal,San Francisco Ferry Building Gate G,12:05:00,12:30:00

Online Version

You can either run gtfs-to-blocks as a command-line tool (see below) or you can use the online version. The online version allows you to use it entirely within your browser - no downloads or command line necessary. It is limited to smaller GTFS files.

blocks.blinktag.com

Installation

npm install

Setup

Configuration is read a JSON file. To get started, copy config-sample.json to config.json and then add your project's configuration to config.json.

cp config-sample.json config.json

Ensure that your config.json is valid JSON before proceeding.

All files starting with config*.json are .gitignored - so you can create multiple configuration files such as config-caltrain.json.

option type description
agencies array An array of GTFS files to be imported.
date string The date to use for generating blocks.
includeDeadheads boolean Whether or not to include deadhead trips from ODS format.
outputPath string The path to the folder to write the csv file to. Optional, defaults to output/<agencyKey>.
overwriteExistingFiles boolean Whether or not to overwrite existing files in the outputPath directory.
timeFormat string A string defining time format in moment.js style.

agencies

{Array} Specify the GTFS files to be imported in an agencies array. GTFS files can be imported via a url or a local path.

Each file needs an agency_key, a short name you create that is specific to that GTFS file. For GTFS files that contain more than one agency, you only need to list each GTFS file once in the agencies array, not once per agency that it contains.

To find an agency's GTFS file, visit transitfeeds.com. You can use the URL from the agency's website or you can use a URL generated from the transitfeeds.com API along with your API token.

  • Specify a download URL:
{
  "agencies": [
    {
      "agency_key": "county-connection",
      "url": "http://cccta.org/GTFS/google_transit.zip"
    }
  ]
}
  • Specify a path to a zipped GTFS file:
{
  "agencies": [
    {
      "agency_key": "myAgency",
      "path": "/path/to/the/gtfs.zip"
    }
  ]
}
  • Specify a path to an unzipped GTFS file:
{
  "agencies": [
    {
      "agency_key": "myAgency",
      "path": "/path/to/the/unzipped/gtfs/"
    }
  ]
}
  • Exclude files - if you don't want all GTFS files to be imported, you can specify an array of files to exclude.
{
  "agencies": [
    {
      "agency_key": "myAgency",
      "path": "/path/to/the/unzipped/gtfs/",
      "exclude": ["shapes", "stops"]
    }
  ]
}

date

{String} The date to use for generating blocks in YYYYMMDD format. Blocks will be generated for all calendars in calendar.txt that overlap with this date. So if a date specified is a weekday, weekend blocks will be generated as well for all calendar.txt entries that overlap the date specified. Defaults to today's date.

"date": "20200505"

includeDeadheads

{Boolean} Whether or not to include deadheads from ODS data. Defaults to true.

"includeDeadheads": true

outputPath

{String} The path to write the CSV file to. Optional, defaults to a folder named output/<agencyKey> in the current directory.

"outputPath": "/path/to/output"

overwriteExistingFiles

{Boolean} Whether or not to overwrite existing files in the outputPath folder. Optional, defaults to true.

"overwriteExistingFiles": true

### timeFormat​

{String} A string defining time format using moment.js tokens. [See full list of formatting options](https://momentjs.com/docs/#/displaying/format/). Defaults to HH:mm:ss which yields "13:14:30".

```json
"timeFormat": "HH:mm:ss"

Quick Start

Command-line example

./bin/gtfs-to-blocks.js --configPath /path/to/your/custom-config.json