National Transit Database: Proposed Reporting Changes and Clarifications for Report Years 2025 and 2026

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Table of Contents

A. Background and Overview

B. Additional Data Within Publicly Hosted General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) Datasets

C. Changes to Passenger Stations and Maintenance Facilities Reporting

D. A-20 NTD/TERM Alignment

E. Safety and Security—Cyber Security Event Reporting

F. Safety and Security—Disabling Damage

G. Reduced Reporter Exemption for Operators Serving Predominantly Rural Areas

H. Voluntary Reporter Tag

A. Background and Overview

The National Transit Database (NTD) was established by Congress to be the Nation's primary source for information and statistics on the transit systems of the United States. Recipients and beneficiaries of Federal Transit Administration (FTA) grants under either the Urbanized Area Formula Program (49 U.S.C. 5307) or Rural Area Formula Program (49 U.S.C. 5311) are required by law to report to the NTD. FTA funding recipients that own, operate, or manage public transportation capital assets are required to provide more limited reports to the NTD regarding Transit Asset Management.

Pursuant to 49 U.S.C. 5334(k), FTA seeks public comment on seven (7) proposed NTD reporting changes and clarifications. These proposals are based on input from the transportation industry and FTA's assessment of geospatial data needs following the NTD's first annual data collection since implementing reporting changes required by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, enacted as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Pub. L. 117-58). The information below describes anticipated reporting impacts from each proposed change or clarification and the proposed effective date of each change. FTA seeks comments on the proposed changes and clarifications described below. All impacts or changes described below are proposed and subject to finalization in a future notice.

B. Additional Data Within Publicly Hosted General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) Datasets

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act amended 49 U.S.C. 5335(a) to require FTA to collect “geographic service area coverage” data through the NTD. As of Report Year (RY) 2023, FTA requires that reporters with fixed route modes create and maintain a public domain GTFS dataset that reflects their fixed route service. These changes were finalized through a Federal Register notice published on March 3, 2023 (88 FR 13497). Specifically, FTA requires agencies that operate fixed route service to maintain a GTFS feed and submit to the NTD a corresponding link or file containing their GTFS dataset. FTA requires that the GTFS file contain six underlying text files at a minimum, including trips.txt and stops.txt. A seventh set of files (shapes.txt and feed_info.txt) is optional under current requirements. GTFS ensures data consistency by establishing minimum requirements within each file; some fields are noted as “optional.” FTA recommends reporting some optional fields (as described below) to improve the usefulness of the datasets for data users. However, these fields currently are not required.

In this notice, FTA proposes to further improve the utility of the GTFS data it collects by collecting additional data according to the GTFS specification.

Align agency_id and NTD ID Within GTFS File

The agency_id field in GTFS is a unique, numeric identifier that is used to identify a transit agency or specific service. FTA adopted GTFS standards using the May 9, 2022 version of GTFS, including the current definition of “ agency_id”, which is published here: https://gtfs.org/reference/static#field-definitions. This definition does not specify a naming convention for the agency_id field or a requirement to use this field in all GTFS text files.

To improve the usefulness of the datasets, FTA proposes two changes to the agency_id data field. First, FTA proposes to require agencies to align the agency_id field to the agency's National Transit Database Identification Number (NTDID). FTA assigns each reporter a unique five-digit NTDID number, which is used in all NTD reports and correspondence. Please note that rural subrecipient reporters should not include the four-digit ID associated with the State.

Second, FTA proposes to make the agency_id data field a non-conditional requirement—that is, a required field for all GTFS submissions—in agency.txt, routes.txt, fare_attributes.txt (if used), and attributions.txt (if used). Currently, this field is conditionally required in the agency.txt, route.txt, and fare_attributes.txt files when multiple agencies are defined in the agency.txt file. While this change primarily affects agencies with only one reportable service in their GTFS feed, FTA would like to reiterate the existing policy when a GTFS feed contains multiple services. In the case where multiple NTD reporting agencies share a single GTFS feed, the routes.txt file must reflect the respective NTDID associated with each route. For example, if a reporter uses one URL for Agency X and Agency Y, each route that is operated by Agency X must have Agency X's NTDID in the agency_id field, and likewise for Agency Y. In the event that the GTFS feed includes non-reportable service (such as intercity bus service), the agency may leave the agency_id field blank for those routes or may assign whatever agency_id is convenient, provided it is not a five-digit number.

FTA proposes that these new requirements apply to all agencies that must already supply a GTFS feed: Full Reporters, Reduced Reporters, Tribal Reporters, and Rural Reporters. The requirement would apply only to reporters that operate a fixed route mode. The requirement would take effect beginning in NTD Report Year 2025.

Shapes.txt File (Geospatial Drawing of Routes) as Part of GTFS Submission

FTA proposes to collect the shapes.txt file as part of the GTFS submission for each mode. This file is optional in the existing GTFS specification. Under this proposal, NTD reporters operating one or more fixed route modes would be required to include in their static GTFS zip ( i.e., the file hosted by the agency) a shapes.txt file for each route. The purpose of this file is to provide shapes, which, according to the GTFS specification, “describe the path that a vehicle travels along a route alignment” which may also be “associated with trips (the data from the presently required trips.txt file).” These shapes “consist of a sequence of points through which the vehicle passes in order.”

FTA proposes that the requirement become effective upon the original submission of the annual report in RY 2025 for Full Reporters and in RY 2026 for Reduced, Rural, and Tribal Reporters. FTA estimates that over one-third of all reporters already maintain the shapes.txt file. Collecting the data included in shapes.txt would benefit transit users by allowing for improved trip planning. In addition, this collection would improve future FTA performance measures and strategic planning.

The National Rural Transit Assistance Program (RTAP) provides resources to help transit agencies generate GTFS data. A resource guide for creating a GTFS dataset is available at https://www.nationalrtap.org/Technology-Tools/GTFS-Builder. This includes Excel templates that will allow users to build GTFS data from existing transit schedules and stop information with little-to-no additional technical expertise. The shapes.txt file can be generated using the GTFS builder approach described in the guide linked above (see the “14. Optional—Complete shapes Tab”).

C. Changes to Passenger Stations and Maintenance Facilities Reporting

Historically, FTA has collected information on passenger stations on two forms in the NTD Asset Module: the A-10 (Stations and Maintenance Facilities) form and the A-15 (Transit Asset Management Facilities Inventory) form. However, due to differences in how the two forms define a “station,” there have been discrepancies between the count of stations as reported in the A-10 and the count of stations in the A-15.

The current A-10 form captures data for both passenger stations and maintenance facilities, regardless of capital responsibility. Agencies currently must report the following information for passenger stations and maintenance facilities, separated by mode and Type of Service (Directly Operated (DO) and Purchased Transportation (PT)):

1. The number of passenger stations, both accessible and inaccessible, in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and USDOT's implementing regulations at 49 CFR part 37.

2. The number of elevators and escalators within passenger stations.

3. The number of maintenance facilities, tallied by size and ownership categories.

To improve and standardize the reporting of passenger stations and facilities in the NTD asset module, FTA proposes to eliminate the A-10 Stations and Maintenance Facilities form, which currently collects a count of ADA-accessible and non-accessible stations. All station information would be reported through a single, consolidated Transit Asset Management Facilities (A-15) form. This form would contain all data collection related to accessibility that is currently captured on the A-10 form. Agencies must indicate which stations are ADA accessible and inaccessible. For ADA accessibility requirements, please reference 49 CFR part 37.

In addition to passenger stations, FTA proposes that agencies inventory all maintenance facilities on the expanded A-15 form, regardless of capital responsibility. Under current A-15 reporting requirements, agencies only inventory administrative and maintenance facilities if the agency has capital responsibility for the facility and the transit use is greater than incidental. With the new consolidated form, FTA proposes to include facilities without capital responsibility, but maintain the exception for incidental use. Maintenance facilities with less than full capital responsibility, which previously would have been reportable on the A-10 and not the A-15, would be reportable on the new, consolidated A-15 form. Facilities whose transit use is incidental would not be reportable, consistent with existing requirements. Use is considered incidental when 50 percent or less of the facility's physical space is dedicated to the provision of public transportation service.

The intent of this change is both to (a) standardize reporting of transit passenger stations and facilities across forms, and (b) lessen the burden on reporters. By combining these forms into a single form, FTA intends to capture station information through a single source and reduce the effort needed to complete the annual NTD asset module reporting.

All facilities that are currently reportable on the A-15 would continue to be reported on the new consolidated form. In addition to facilities already collected, the expanded A-15 data collection would include the following:

1. Each passenger station's accessibility, expressed as either “ADA accessible” or “ADA inaccessible,” in accordance with 49 CFR part 37. An accessible station complies with part 37 and is fully accessible to individuals with disabilities, including individuals who use wheelchairs. Inaccessible stations do not meet the requirements of part 37.

2. The number of elevators and escalators within passenger stations for each applicable station.

3. The number of passenger facilities (for fixed-route modes) and maintenance facilities (for all modes and types of service other than Taxi (TX) or Transportation Network Company (TN)) by size and ownership categories. Data on maintenance facilities would be collected in a manner similar to the chart below.