Recent and upcoming changes to stop data

[Developer at MBTA]

Hello developers,

We'd like to call your attention to some recent changes in our GTFS and V3 API data, reflecting changes in MBTA service. These may be relevant to your application if, for example, you store stop IDs in a database. For minor changes like these, we typically don't create a new API version — apps should account for the possibility that a stored stop ID is no longer valid, especially on bus routes where service can change significantly on a quarterly basis.

New Chelsea commuter rail station
From November 15th, the old Chelsea parent station place-ER-0046 no longer exists in the data. Its child stops (ER-0046, ER-0046-01, ER-0046-02) are now children of place-chels, the existing ID for the Chelsea SL3 station, which now represents the combined SL3 and Commuter Rail station. Entrances and pathways for this station have also been added to the data.

Green Line B branch station consolidation
From November 15th,

• Boston University West (place-buwst) and Saint Paul Street (place-stplb) are replaced with a new station, Amory Street (place-amory).
• Babcock Street (place-babck) and Pleasant Street (place-plsgr) are replaced with a new station, also named Babcock Street (with the same stop ID).
• The child stops for place-amory are 170140 and 170141; the new child stops for place-babck are 170136 and 170137.
  

The old parent stations are still present in the data, with no associated trips, but as of November 23rd their child stops have been removed. The removed child stop IDs are: 70136, 70137, 70140, 70141, 70142, 70143 (this does not include Pleasant Street, which was already removed in April when the station was closed for construction)

During the week of November 29th, the closed parent stations place-buwst and place-stplb will also be removed from the data. This will complete the data changes for this project.

Green Line terminus changes

From October 20th, as part of preparation for GLX, the last stop for inbound Green Line trains from certain branches has changed:

• Green-B now terminates at Government Center (was Park Street)
• Green-C now terminates at Government Center (was North Station)
• Green-D now terminates at North Station (was Government Center)
• Green-E is unchanged
  

There are no stop ID changes here, but it may be something to watch out for, most notably that North Station and Haymarket are no longer "on" the C branch.

As always, please let us know here if you have any questions about these changes.

—Developer@MBTA

[Developer at MBTA]

Correction to this announcement: The section on "Green Line B branch station consolidation"  said that as of November 23rd (today) the closed child stops were removed from the data. This is not actually the case, and they will remain present (with no service defined) until the update during the week of November 29th that removes the closed parent stations. Apologies for any confusion!

—Developer@MBTA