GTFS Real-time - missing fields

[Mark]

Hello,

Full disclaimer: I'm relatively new to working with GTSF feeds, so this is a pretty newbie question I'm sure.

My agency's GTFS feed is consistently providing feed entities that do not include a trip_id field, occupancy status, etc. The entity looks like this:

entity {
  id: "131586"
  vehicle {
    position {
      latitude: 48.687896728515625
      longitude: -123.41217803955078
      bearing: 199.0
      speed: 0.0
    }
    timestamp: 1653882216
    vehicle {
      id: "9395"
      label: "9395"
    }
  }
}

This represents a good chunk (maybe 10%) of entities in the feed. I have checked using other sources that this entity is currently in service on a route.

Before I reach out to the agency and cause a hassle, has anyone had experience with these types of issues before? I just want to make sure I'm not missing something super obvious or a known reason for this missing data.

[Sean Barbeau]

Hi,

VehiclePositions without trip or route info could be vehicles not currently providing passenger-facing service (e.g., dead-heading to garage).

10% sounds like a lot though.

You could run the feed through the GTFS Realtime Validator and see if it throws a lot of errors to get a sense of quality:

https://github.com/MobilityData/gtfs-realtime-validator

Sean

Sean Barbeau

Center for Urban Transportation Research

University of South Florida