Developers
OC Transpo Open Data Feed Changes
OC Transpo has migrated to a new GTFS-RT open data feed. This means the legacy API 2.0 data feed we have provided will no longer be available after April 30, 2025.
OC Transpo has adopted the North American industry standard General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) Realtime for its next arrivals open data feed. Resources are available below for developers to create applications for desktop, Web or mobile devices:
- GTFS-RT and static file documentation and developer portal
- New GTFS Schedules Release Notes
- Best practices
- Terms of use
The legacy open data API 2.0 that OC Transpo has provided for a number of years will be taken offline on April 30, 2025. Until then, the GTFS Schedule file for use with legacy OC Transpo API 2.0 and support documentation will remain available.
Service Alerts RSS Feeds
Subscribe to OC Transpo’s RSS feeds using the following urls:
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is the General Transit Feed Specification?
The General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) is an open format developed by Google, maintained by MobilityData and now used as an international standard to incorporate transit information into applications that include geographic data. Because this is an open and freely available format, anyone can use the data to create their own applications. This feed has been available to the public from OC Transpo since 2008.
2. Do you offer technical support?
There has been significant interest in transit data. While we cannot provide support in creating applications, we will provide you with some helpful resources. If you have any questions, suggestions or concerns regarding how GTFS-realtime works, please reach out to octranspo-dev@ottawa.ca.
3. Are there any restrictions on what I can do with the data?
OC Transpo and the City of Ottawa allow registered developers to use the GTFS-RT data for both non-commercial and commercial purposes.
4. How real-time is "real-time"? Is the data updated continuously or is there some sort of delay?
Under normal operation, the GPS data is sent from the buses to the server every 30 seconds using cellular technology. Inherently, the cellular technology may present gaps in connectivity as vehicles move. It is OC Transpo’s experience, based on many years of GPS usage, that about 5% of the time - due to a multitude of reasons such as equipment defects, latency and network coverage - we don’t have the exact position of the buses, and this will effect the data feed. Although reasonable efforts have been made in providing this service, we cannot guarantee its accuracy or completeness.