[MTA] GTFS-RT Update: Status Priority Added to Alert Entity ID

[torrey...@mtahq.org]

Hi MTA developer community, 

We wanted to give you a heads-up about an upcoming update to our GTFS-RT feeds across all agencies (NYCT Subway, NYCT Bus, Long Island Rail Road, and Metro-North Railroad). This small change should go into effect sometime during the week of 08/10/2026.

Documentation is available on GitHub: https://github.com/nymta/gtfs-documentation/blob/main/feeds/service_changes.md.   

What's changing:
The `id` field under `entity` for service alerts will now include a status priority rank, appended to the existing alert ID and separated by a colon.

Before:
"entity": [{"id": "lmm:alert:532243", ...}]

After:
"entity": [{"id": "lmm:alert:532243:31", ...}]

In this example, "31" corresponds to the "Detour" status.

Background:
Each alert in our content management system is assigned one of 35 possible statuses (e.g., Detour, Reroute, Delays, Planned Work). Each status has a rank from 1 (lowest priority) to 35 (highest priority). This rank is now surfaced directly in the entity ID so you can identify an alert's status priority without needing a separate lookup.

A few things to note:
- This applies uniformly across all four agency feeds — no agency-specific exceptions.
- The existing ID structure is unchanged; the rank is purely additive as a suffix.
- If an alert's status changes, the rank suffix will update on the next feed refresh.

Thank you,

MTA

Confidentiality Note: This e-mail, and any attachment to it, may contain privileged and confidential information and is intended for the use of the individual(s) or entity named on the e-mail. Unauthorized disclosure of this message is prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail and destroy this message and all copies thereof, including all attachments.