Updates to carriage (consist) information

[Developer at MBTA]

Dear Developers,

We’ve are currently surfacing train-specific carriage information through two different elements in our GTFS-RT feeds: the experimental multi_carriage_details element, and the redundant consist element.

As such, we will streamline our VehiclePositions feed by removing the consist element and fully adopting multi_carriage_details.

This change will be effective ~30 days from this notice (December 13, 2023), providing time to update your applications as needed. Though multi_carriage_details is already available, it will soon be the sole source for carriage information.

Note: we are aware that Light Rail train carriage ordering may not always be reliable due to positioning technology inaccuracies. We are continually working to improve these technologies, and the data we collect from them.

To learn more about multi_carriage_details, visit our documentation and the official GTFS-rt documentation.

As always, please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions.

Thanks,

Developer @ MBTA