fare structure variations

[Nikhil VJ]

Hello,

Two questions about fares in GTFS

1. If we have different ticket prices for children and people (by children they generally mean babies, toddlers and kids up to age 6 or 10 or up to a certain height like 4 feet), then how can we express that in GTFS? How are other agencies handling this?

2. If different types of buses ply along the same route (example: ordinary, and air-conditioned) carrying the same route number, same stops etc and charge different fares, how do we express the different fares in GTFS?

What I'm planning on doing : Introduce extra columns in fare_attributes.txt to indicate these differences.

Please let me know if you think this solution may have a problem; and please share if you know what other agencies are doing.

Regards

Nikhil VJ, Pune, India

https://nikhilvj.co.in

[Leo Frachet (MobilityData)]

Hi Nikhil!

Thanks for your feedback!

Such proposal to extend the specification are really appreciated. And if you're interested by those topics I encourage you to follow the conversation around extending the GTFS format directly on its official GitHub: https://github.com/google/transit (tab "Issues" for question like the one you're raising, and tab "Pull Request" if you have specific proposals).

Regarding your two questions, we (at MobilityData, see mobilitydata.org) are working on two extensions of GTFS to cover those cases.

1. Children prices are discussed as part of the GTFS-FareCategories (http://bit.ly/gtfs-fares).

2. Distinction between AC and non-AC vehicles are described by the GTFS-Vehicles proposal (http://bit.ly/gtfs-vehicles)

But there is currently no proposal on the table to restrict a specific fare to a specific vehicle, but if the need is big enough (aka if it is a widely used feature in some place of the world) we can discuss it.

If I may ask:

- Which network (city or public transit agency) are you describing in your data?

- Who are the intended consumers of that data (is it yourself, or are you working with other stakeholders you are consuming that data)?

Best,

Leo

MobilityData.org

[ka...@karhm.com]

I would suggest adding trip_id field to fare_rules.txt as some trips may be "premium" ones thus be more expensive. Also it would be very simple to add an exception fare, lets say all trips in a route share the same fare but there is a special trip that have its own fare.