TransLoc Architect Quickly Becoming Dominant Model for Rapid GTFS Data Conversion

TransLoc has solidified its position as the purveyor of the preferred General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) management tool for transit agencies nationwide thanks to its newest product, Architect.

TransLoc Architect enables transit agencies of any size to build and manage their GTFS feeds (the standard format for public transportation data) — for free.

Since its launch in March, Architect has captivated the transit industry with its innovative technology and approach to solving major challenges facing transit agencies of all sizes when building and managing GTFS formats, making routes and schedules available on the web and in applications like Google Maps.

“We’re thrilled about the rapid adoption of this powerful time-saving tool,” said Doug Kaufman, CEO of TransLoc. “In three months, more than 100 transit agencies have made Architect the tool of choice for building and managing their GTFS faster and easier than ever before.”

Without GTFS, an agency’s transit data would be unavailable via web or mobile applications like TransLoc Rider or Google Transit. Riders increasingly rely on these apps to display transit routes and schedules, or to track vehicles in real-time.

Before using Architect, transit agencies often relied on time-intensive manual methods like Excel, or expensive or outdated software to create and manage GTFS data — often with frustrating results.

What sets TransLoc Architect apart from other GTFS management tools?

Jerl McCollum, transit planner, LeeTran, Lee County Transit: “Architect has helped to make our jobs as planners much smoother. It’s ease of use and intuitive user interface have greatly increased our productivity. Prior to using Architect, we tried to manage our data by cobbling together several solutions including ArcMap, Excel, and scheduling software. Now, we can simply view our GTFS data in tabular and graphical formats in one place. Additionally, the program allows us to customize details for routes and stops and makes building patterns fast and simple. With Architect’s built-in checks that warn users about errors before exporting, we can ensure that Google, Bing, Apple, and the public receives accurate GTFS files. Plus, the customer support from Architect is excellent.”

Guy Sample, customer service agent, NassauTRANSIT: “As a small transit system, our primary goal in using Architect was to create a GTFS file for submission to Google as part of their Google Transit program. Architect not only worked beautifully but was easy to use. It only took us a couple of hours, including reviewing the how-to videos, which were great, to prepare the GTFS file.”

Levi Coldiron, GIS coordinator, city of Salisbury GIS Division: “Prior to using Architect, we hadn’t created a GTFS feed. In the past, original creation of spatial data from field-collected data took about 5 weeks. After completing our onboarding, it only took us 10 days to create a feed and submit it to Google, start to finish. Architect was a very user-friendly tool that helped us put our GIS data into GTFS format in a very fast and efficient manner. We were very pleased with the end results.”

Jonah Freedman, research assistant and GIS analyst, Institute for Transportation Research and Education (ITRE): “Every transit agency should have a GTFS feed but the process of creating a feed can be somewhat intimidating. As a platform, Architect is intuitive enough for the average transit professional to utilize and maintain their feed on a daily basis. Many of the validation tools built into Architect are so well-incorporated into the software that you may not notice the time-saving capacity until the feed is complete. Even more important are the frustration-savings that Architect provides from an error-checking standpoint. With Architect, you don’t have to go hunting in your database for mistakes because Architect updates automatically as you make changes.”