The GTFS workspace

Turn any GTFS feed into a living map

Open a feed and watch the whole network come to life. Understand routes, schedules and service in minutes, follow vehicles live where available, and catch problems before riders do.

Runs in your browser Nothing to install Live data where available
Interactive map Data tables Service timeline Calendar heatmaps Feed health Live vehicles
Start in seconds

No scripts, no GIS project, no waiting

Any GTFS feed opens right in your browser and everything is processed on your device. Explore a public network, check a colleague's link, or work on a private draft that never gets uploaded anywhere.

Explore hundreds of public networks

Spin the globe and pick a feed by country, agency or city. You see what each feed supports, including live data, before you even open it.

Open a feed from any link

Paste a feed URL and the network opens ready to explore. Bookmark it, or send the link to a colleague so they see exactly what you see.

Keep private feeds private

Working on an unpublished draft? Drop the ZIP straight from your machine. It is parsed locally and never leaves your browser.

TransitLens Home with the search field, the Catalog, Web link and Local ZIP options, and a library of opened feeds for Boston, Chicago and Austin
Have a feed link? Try it now
Enter a valid GTFS feed URL

Sample: MBTA data under the MassDOT Developers License Agreement. TransitLens is not affiliated with or endorsed by MBTA. Data licensing

One feed, four answers

Every question about a feed has a view

Where does the network go? What runs today, and when are the peaks? How does service change through the year? Switch between map, tables, timeline and calendar without losing your place.

Map

Know where the network goes

The whole system appears on one map, drawn in the agency's own route colors with real shape geometry. Zoom from the full network down to a single platform, and click anything to learn more about it.

  • Routes and stops stay readable at any zoom
  • Focus on one mode, agency, route or time of day
  • Draw an area to study just that part of the city
The MBTA network on the TransitLens map in official route colors, with the Layers card open under the map toolbar
Tables

Find any route, stop or trip in seconds

When you need specifics instead of shapes, the same feed becomes clean, sortable tables. Filter to what matters, read coverage dates and route types at a glance, and jump from any row straight to the map.

  • Routes, stops and trips in linked tables
  • Live status and data quality notes next to each route
  • One click locates any row on the map
GTFS routes table listing MBTA routes with mode, direction, agency, coverage dates and a live status column
Timeline

See when service actually runs

Every trip is laid out across the day, route by route and direction by direction. Morning and evening peaks jump out, and so do the gaps. Pick any service date to see how weekdays differ from weekends.

  • The full service day as a trip by trip timeline
  • Peak hours detected for you
  • Compare directions, modes and agencies
Service timeline showing MBTA trips per route across the day as colored bars, with the peak hour marked
Calendar

Understand the whole year at a glance

A heat calendar colors every day by how much service runs, so seasonal cuts, holiday schedules and exception days stand out immediately. When someone asks what changed in August, the answer is one screen and one PDF export away.

  • Service levels by day, month or year
  • Holidays and calendar exceptions marked on the grid
  • Export to PDF or print for meetings
Service calendar heatmap coloring each day from September to December by service level, with holidays and exceptions marked
Live where available

Watch the network run in real time

Open the demo feed below and the live map starts on its own. Vehicles, trip updates and alerts appear automatically for feeds whose agency publishes GTFS Realtime.

  • Live vehicle locations. Every active vehicle moves along its route, with occupancy, heading and the next stop one click away.
  • Trip updates. Departure boards shift as service runs early or late, so you can compare what was scheduled with what is really happening.
  • Service alert notifications. Detours and disruptions arrive parsed and readable, down to the exact routes and stops they affect.
  • Cancellations counted. Cancelled trips are surfaced separately, not silently missing.
Live buses, trains and ferries moving across downtown Boston, with a stop card showing the next bus arriving against its scheduled time
Zoom in on anything

Ask detailed questions, get instant answers

Click any route or stop, on the map, in search or in a table, and a focused inspector opens with everything the feed knows about it.

Is this route running right now?
Route inspector for the Red Line with today's service, next departures and a train followed live stop by stop, 13 minutes late
  • Today's service window and trip count, live
  • Next departures with realtime status
  • Every stop in order, with times, per direction
What serves this stop, and when?
Stop inspector for Essex St at Atlantic Ave showing trips today, the next arrivals and departures marked late or early
  • Every route serving the stop, with next arrivals
  • Departures marked on time or delayed as they happen
  • Stop ID, platform type and wheelchair access
Feed health

Catch feed problems before your riders do

Publishing a broken feed is expensive. TransitLens checks the whole feed as it loads and sorts every finding by severity, from critical breakage to minor polish, across schedules, geometry, stops, calendars, fares and realtime. Each finding lists the exact routes, stops or trips affected, so fixing it starts immediately.

Feed Health for the MBTA feed graded 90 A, with findings grouped by topic and a duplicate stop finding shown on a map
Bookmarks

Track every issue until it's fixed

Found something wrong? Bookmark it from Feed Health, the Inspector or any table, add a note for whoever maintains the schedule, and move it from To do to Investigating to Resolved. Each bookmark shows the problem on its own map, so anyone can pick it up where you left off.

  • Bookmark findings, routes, stops and trips
  • Notes, severity and a status for each issue
  • A built in map and a saved view to reopen it exactly
A bookmarked duplicate stop finding marked Investigating, with the two Broadway Station stops on a built in map and a note for the mapping team
Insights and reports

Turn a feed into something you can present

Some questions need more than a map. Built in reports summarize how service behaves, and a diagram generator turns your routes into a schematic you can drop straight into a slide deck.

Service rhythm

How service is distributed across the week.

Service quality

Punctuality and realtime coverage, measured.

Intensity map

Which corridors and stops carry the service.

Map diagram

A metro style schematic, exportable to PNG or PDF.

Metro style schematic of the MBTA Red, Orange and Blue lines, generated automatically from GTFS schedule data
Who it helps

Made for the people behind the feed

Transit planners

Read network structure, span of service and peaks without exporting anything into a GIS project.

GTFS maintainers

See your feed the way tools and riders will. Validate visually and catch health issues before publishing.

Developers

Understand an unfamiliar feed fast. See how routes, trips, stops and shapes really connect before writing code against them.

Consultants and researchers

Review a new dataset in an afternoon, compare service coverage, and walk away with visuals ready to share.

Agencies and operators

Sanity check schedules and live data, and see the network exactly as your published feed describes it.

Transit enthusiasts

Explore any city's network on a map, follow vehicles live, and learn how GTFS describes the transit around you.

Why TransitLens

Fast, private and built only for transit data

Nothing to install

Open a browser tab and start exploring. Works the same on any machine.

Your data stays yours

Feeds are parsed on your device. Local files never leave your browser.

Built for big feeds

Hundreds of routes and a hundred thousand trips stay smooth and responsive.

Standard GTFS

Works with any feed that follows the GTFS spec, from a single town to a whole region.

Try it now

Your feed has a story. See it.

Open a feed and the network appears in seconds. No setup required.