Configuration options

GTFS-to-HTML reads its configuration from a JSON file. To get started, copy config-sample.json to config.json and add your project's configuration. An example config-sample-full.json file includes a full list of all configuration options while config-sample.json only includes a few of the most commonly used options.

cp config-sample.json config.json

Ensure that your config.json is valid JSON before proceeding.

note

All files starting with config*.json are .gitignored - so you can create multiple configuration files such as config-caltrain.json. Use the --configPath option when running GTFS-to-HTML.

Option	Type	Description
`agencies`	Array[Object]	An array of GTFS and GTFS-realtime URLs to be imported.
`allowEmptyTimetables`	Boolean	Whether to generate timetables that have no trips.
`beautify`	Boolean	Whether to beautify the HTML output.
`coordinatePrecision`	Number	Number of decimal places to include when rendering GeoJSON map output.
`dateFormat`	String	A string defining date format in moment.js style.
`daysShortStrings`	Array[String]	An array defining contractions of weekday names from Monday to Sunday.
`daysStrings`	Array[String]	An array defining weekday names from Monday to Sunday.
`debug`	Boolean	Enable logging of SQL queries and other info.
`defaultOrientation`	String	Specify timetable orientation when not specified in `timetables.txt`.
`effectiveDate`	String	A date to print at the top of the timetable.
`endDate`	String	A date in ISO 8601 format to control which calendars are used for the timetables.
`interpolatedStopSymbol`	String	The symbol used to indicate that a timepoint isn't fixed, but just interpolated.
`interpolatedStopText`	String	The text used to describe a timepoint that isn't fixed, but just interpolated.
`linkStopUrls`	Boolean	Whether to hyperlink timetable stop names to the `stop_url` defined in `stops.txt`.
`logFunction`	Function	A custom logging function for handling output of logs.
`mapStyleUrl`	String	The URL to a MapLibre style to use for maps.
`menuType`	String	The type of menu to use for selecting timetables on a timetable page.
`noDropoffSymbol`	String	The symbol used to indicate a stop where no drop off is available.
`noDropoffText`	String	The text used to describe a stop where no drop off is available.
`noHead`	Boolean	Whether to skip the header and footer of the HTML document.
`noServiceSymbol`	String	The symbol used when a specific trip does not serve a specified stop.
`noServiceText`	String	The text used to describe a stop which is not served by a specific trip.
`outputFormat`	String	The file format of the timetables generated. Either `html`, `pdf` or `csv`.
`outputPath`	String	The path to write the timetables to. Optional, defaults to `html/<agencyKey>`.
`overwriteExistingFiles`	Boolean	Whether to overwrite existing files in the `outputPath` directory.
`noPickupSymbol`	String	The symbol used to indicate a stop where no pickup is available.
`noPickupText`	String	The text used to describe a stop where no pickup is available.
`requestDropoffSymbol`	String	The symbol used to indicate a stop where riders must request a drop off.
`requestDropoffText`	String	The text used to describe a stop where riders must request a drop off.
`requestPickupSymbol`	String	The symbol used to indicate a stop where riders must request a pickup.
`requestPickupText`	String	The text used to describe a stop where riders must request a pickup.
`serviceNotProvidedOnText`	String	The text used to label days where service is not provided.
`serviceProvidedOnText`	String	The text used to label days where service is provided.
`showArrivalOnDifference`	Number	Defines a difference between departure and arrival on which arrival column/row will be shown.
`showCalendarExceptions`	Boolean	Whether to show a list of calendar exceptions below each timetable.
`showDuplicateTrips`	Boolean	Whether to show duplicate trips with identical stops and times.
`showMap`	Boolean	Whether to show a map of the route on the timetable.
`showOnlyTimepoint`	Boolean	Whether all stops should be shown, or only stops with a `timepoint` value in `stops.txt`.
`showRouteTitle`	Boolean	Whether to show the route title at the top of the timetable page.
`showStopCity`	Boolean	Whether to show each stop's city.
`showStopDescription`	Boolean	Whether to show a stop description.
`showStoptimesForRequestStops`	Boolean	Whether to show times for stops that require a request for pickup or dropoff.
`skipImport`	Boolean	Whether to skip importing GTFS data into SQLite.
`sortingAlgorithm`	String	Defines the trip-sorting algorithm.
`sqlitePath`	String	A path to an SQLite database. Optional, defaults to using an in-memory database.
`startDate`	String	A date in ISO 8601 format to control which calendars are used for the timetables.
`templatePath`	String	Path to custom pug template for rendering timetable.
`timeFormat`	String	A string defining time format in moment.js style.
`useParentStation`	Boolean	Whether to use a stop's `parent_station`.
`verbose`	Boolean	Whether to print output to the console.
`zipOutput`	Boolean	Whether to zip the output into one zip file.

agencies

Specify the GTFS to be imported in an agencies array. GTFS files can be imported via a url or a local path. GTFS-Realtime URLs can be specified using realtimeTripUpdates and realtimeVehiclePositions to support showing realtime vehicle positions and trip updates on a map.

Each GTFS needs an agencyKey, a short name you create that is specific to that GTFS file.

Specify a download URL

{
  "agencies": [
    {
      "agencyKey": "county-connection",
      "url": "https://countyconnection.com/GTFS/google_transit.zip"
    }
  ]
}

Specify a path to a zipped GTFS file

{
  "agencies": [
    {
      "agencyKey": "myAgency",
      "path": "/path/to/the/gtfs.zip"
    }
  ]
}

Specify a path to an unzipped GTFS file

{
  "agencies": [
    {
      "agencyKey": "myAgency",
      "path": "/path/to/the/unzipped/gtfs/"
    }
  ]
}

Add GTFS-Realtime URLs

Add GTFS-Realtime URLs to enable vehicle positions on the route map. Each GTFS-Realtime field accepts an object with a url field and optional headers field to specify HTTP headers to include with the request, usually for authorization purposes.

{
  "agencies": [
    {
      "agencyKey": "marintransit",
      "url": "https://marintransit.org/data/google_transit.zip",
      "realtimeAlerts": {
        "url": "https://api.marintransit.org/alerts",
        "headers": {
          "Authorization": "bearer 123456780"
        }
      },
      "realtimeTripUpdates": {
        "url": "https://api.marintransit.org/tripupdates",
        "headers": {
          "Authorization": "bearer 123456780"
        }
      },
      "realtimeVehiclePositions": {
        "url": "https://api.marintransit.org/vehiclepositions",
        "headers": {
          "Authorization": "bearer 123456780"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Exclude files

If you don't want all GTFS files to be imported, you can specify an array of files to exclude.

{
  "agencies": [
    {
      "agencyKey": "myAgency",
      "path": "/path/to/the/unzipped/gtfs/",
      "exclude": [
        "shapes",
        "stops"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Specify coordinate projection

Optionally specify a proj4 projection string to correct poorly formed coordinates in the GTFS file.

{
  "agencies": [
    {
      "agencyKey": "myAgency",
      "path": "/path/to/the/unzipped/gtfs/",
      "proj": "+proj=lcc +lat_1=46.8 +lat_0=46.8 +lon_0=0 +k_0=0.99987742 +x_0=600000 +y_0=2200000 +a=6378249.2 +b=6356515 +towgs84=-168,-60,320,0,0,0,0 +pm=paris +units=m +no_defs"
    }
  ]
}

Multiple agencies

Specify multiple agencies to be imported. Note that it is often better to have one configuration file per agency and call gtfs-to-html multiple times rather than have two different agencies in the same config file. If agencies have conflicting IDs for routes, stops, calendars or more, GTFS-to-HTML will fail.

{
  "agencies": [
    {
      "agencyKey": "myAgency",
      "path": "/path/to/the/gtfs.zip"
    },
    {
      "agencyKey": "otherAgency",
      "path": "/path/to/the/othergtfs.zip"
    }
  ]
}

allowEmptyTimetables

Whether to generate empty timetables that have no trips. Optional. Defaults to false.

"allowEmptyTimetables": false

beautify

Whether to beautify the HTML output. Optional. Defaults to false.

"beautify": false

coordinatePrecision

The number of decimal places to include in the latitude and longitude of coordinates in GeoJSON used in maps. Optional. Omit to avoid any rounding. 5 is a reasonable value (about 1.1 meters).

"coordinatePrecision": 5

dateFormat

A string defining date format using moment.js tokens. See full list of formatting options. Optional. Defaults to MMM D. YYYY which yields "Apr 5, 2022".

"dateFormat": "MMM D, YYYY"

daysShortStrings

An array of strings defining contractions of weekday names. Specify from Monday to Sunday. Optional. Defaults to ["Mon", "Tue", "Wed", "Thu", "Fri", "Sat", "Sun"].

"daysShortStrings": ["Mon", "Tue", "Wed", "Thu", "Fri", "Sat", "Sun"]

daysStrings

An array of strings defining weekday names. Specify from Monday to Sunday. Optional. Defaults to ["Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday", "Sunday"].

"daysStrings": ["Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday", "Sunday"]

debug

Whether to enable logging of SQL queries and other info. Optional. Defaults to false.

"debug": false

defaultOrientation

Specifies timetable orientation when not mentioned in timetables.txt. Valid options are vertical, horizontal or hourly. Optional. Defaults to vertical. For details, see timetables.txt orientation specification.

"defaultOrientation": "vertical"

effectiveDate

This is printed at the top of the timetable. Optional. No default value.

"effectiveDate": "July 8, 2015"

endDate

A date in YYYY-MM-DD format to control which calendars are used for the timetables. Can be used with startDate configuration options. Optional. Defaults to using all available calendars if not defined. Overridden by start_date and end_date defined in timetables.txt.

"endDate": "2024-04-01"

interpolatedStopSymbol

The symbol used to indicate that a timepoint isn't fixed, but just interpolated. Optional. Defaults to •. To avoid having this symbol used in timetables, set it to null.

"interpolatedStopSymbol": "•"

interpolatedStopText

The text used to describe that a timepoint isn't fixed, but just interpolated. Optional. Defaults to Estimated time of arrival.

"interpolatedStopText": "Estimated time of arrival"

linkStopUrls

Whether to hyperlink timetable stop names to the stop_url defined in stops.txt. If no stop_url is defined for a stop, no link will be created. Optional. Defaults to false.

"linkStopUrls": false

logFunction

If you want to route logs to a custom function, you can pass a function that takes a single text argument as logFunction. This can't be used when running GTFS-to-HTML as a command-line utility, only when included as part of a Node.js app and passed in a config object to gtfsToHtml(). Optional. No default value.

import gtfsToHtml from 'gtfs-to-html';

const config = {
  agencies: [
    {
      agencyKey: 'county-connection',
      url: 'https://countyconnection.com/GTFS/google_transit.zip',
      exclude: ['shapes'],
    },
  ],
  logFunction: function (text) {
    // Do something with the logs here, like save it or send it somewhere
    console.log(text);
  },
};

gtfsToHtml(config);

mapStyleUrl

The URL to a MapLibre JSON style. Optional. Defaults to https://tiles.openfreemap.org/styles/liberty. Customize your own map style using Maputnik.

"mapStyleUrl": "https://tiles.openfreemap.org/styles/bright"

menuType

The type of menu to use for selecting or navigating to timetables on timetable pages with multiple timetables. Valid choices are none, simple, jump and radio. Optional. Defaults to simple.

"menuType": "jump"

noDropoffSymbol

The symbol used to indicate that no drop off is available at a stop. Optional. Defaults to ‡. To avoid having this symbol used in timetables, set it to null.

"noDropoffSymbol": "‡"

noDropoffText

The text used to describe that no drop off is available at a stop. Optional. Defaults to No drop off available.

"noDropoffText": "No drop off available"

noHead

Whether to skip the HTML head and footer when generating the HTML. This is useful for creating embeddable HTML without <html>, <head> or <body> tags. Optional. Defaults to false. Ignored if outputFormat is set to pdf or csv.

"noHead": false

noPickupSymbol

The symbol used to indicate that no pickup is available at a stop. Optional. Defaults to **. To avoid having this symbol used in timetables, set it to null.

"noPickupSymbol": "**"

noPickupText

The text used to describe that no pickup is available at a stop. Optional. Defaults to No pickup available.

"noPickupText": "No pickup available"

noServiceSymbol

The symbol used when a specific trip does not serve a specified stop. Optional. Defaults to -. To avoid having this symbol used in timetables, set it to null.

"noServiceSymbol": "-"

noServiceText

The text used to describe when a specific trip does not serve a specified stop. Optional. Defaults to No service at this stop.

"noServiceText": "No service at this stop"

outputFormat

The file format of the timetables generated. Either html, pdf or csv. Optional. Defaults to html.

"outputFormat": "html"

outputPath

The path to write the HTML, CSV or PDF timetables to. If zipOutput is true, a zip file of all timetables will be written to the outputPath. Optional. Defaults to a folder named html/<agencyKey> in the current directory.

"outputPath": "/path/to/output/timetables"

overwriteExistingFiles

Whether to overwrite existing files in the outputPath folder. Optional. Defaults to true.

"overwriteExistingFiles": true

requestDropoffSymbol

The symbol used to indicate that riders must request to be dropped off at a stop. Optional. Defaults to †. To avoid having this symbol used in timetables, set it to null.

"requestDropoffSymbol": "†"

requestDropoffText

The text used to describe that riders must request to be dropped off at a stop. Optional. Defaults to Must request drop off.

"requestDropoffText": "Must request drop off"

requestPickupSymbol

The symbol used to indicate that riders must request pickup at a stop. Optional. Defaults to ***. To avoid having this symbol used in timetables, set it to null.

"requestPickupSymbol": "***"

requestPickupText

The text used to describe that riders must request pickup at a stop. Optional. Defaults to Request stop - call for pickup.

"requestPickupText": "Request stop - call for pickup"

serviceNotProvidedOnText

The text used to label days where service is not provided. Optional. Defaults to Service not provided on.

"serviceNotProvidedOnText": "Service not provided on"

serviceProvidedOnText

The text used to label days where service is provided. Optional. Defaults to Service provided on.

"serviceProvidedOnText": "Service provided on"

showArrivalOnDifference

Whether to show an arrival column/row in the timetable. It means that if on at least one stop the difference (stay on that stop) is equal or greater than specified here, the arrival time will be shown. Use 0 to show on each stop or null to skip showing an additional column for arrival. Optional. No default value.

"showArrivalOnDifference": 0.2

showCalendarExceptions

Whether to show a list of calendar exceptions below each timetable. Uses dates defined in calendar_dates.txt. Optional. Defaults to true.

"showCalendarExceptions": true

showDuplicateTrips

Whether to show duplicate trips with identical stops and times. Optional. Defaults to false.

"showDuplicateTrips": false

showMap

Whether to show a map of the route on the timetable. Optional. Defaults to false.

If you'd rather just get all stops and route info as GeoJSON, see gtfs-to-geojson.

"showMap": false

showOnlyTimepoint

Whether all stops should be shown, or only stops with a timepoint value in stop_times.txt that is considered exact (i.e. empty or 1). Optional. Defaults to false, all stops shown.

"showOnlyTimepoint": false

showRouteTitle

Whether to show the route title and effective date at the top of the timetable page and the timetable label and notes before each timetable. Optional. Defaults to true, showing the route title and timetable labels and notes.

"showRouteTitle": true

showStopCity

Whether to show the city for each stop. City is determined by the stop_city field in the non-standard stop_attributes.txt. Only has an effect when the timetable's orientation is horizontal or hourly. Optional. Defaults to false.

"showStopCity": false

showStopDescription

Whether to show a stop description for each stop. Stop description is taken from the stop_desc field in stops.txt. Optional. Defaults to false.

"showStopDescription": false

showStoptimesForRequestStops

Whether to show times for stops that require a request for pickup or dropoff. Some agencies prefer to hide the actual stoptimes from stops that require a request and instead just show the request pickup or dropoff symbols. See requestDropoffSymbol and requestPickupSymbol for how to customize appearance. Optional. Defaults to true.

"showStoptimesForRequestStops": true

skipImport

Whether to skip importing from GTFS into SQLite. Useful for re-running the script if the GTFS data has not changed. If you use this option and the GTFS file hasn't been imported or you don't have an sqlitePath to a non-in-memory database specified, you'll get an error. Optional. Defaults to false.

"skipImport": false

sortingAlgorithm

Defines the trip-sorting algorithm used to determine the order that trips are shown in timetables. Optional. Defaults to common.

common finds a common stop used by all trips and sorts by stoptimes at that stop. If there is no common stop for all trips, then beginning algorithm is used.
beginning uses the first stoptime of each trip, which can be from different stops if not all trips have the same first stop. If multiple trips have identical first stoptimes, the trip with the earlier last stoptimes comes first.
end uses the last stoptime of each trip, which can be from different stops if not all trips have the same last stop. If multiple trips have identical last stoptimes, the trip with the earlier first stoptimes comes first.
first uses the first stop of the longest trip and sorts by stoptimes at that stop.
last uses the last stop of the longest trip and sorts by stoptimes at that stop.

"sortingAlgorithm": "common"

sqlitePath

A path to an SQLite database. Optional. Defaults to using an in-memory database with a value of :memory:. If you want the data imported to persist, you need to specify a value for sqlitePath. Supports tilde as part of the path, like ~/Documents/gtfs.

"sqlitePath": "/tmp/gtfs"

startDate

A date in YYYY-MM-DD format to control which calendars are used for the timetables. Can be used with endDate configuration options. Optional. Defaults to using all available calendars if not defined. Overridden by start_date and end_date defined in timetables.txt.

"startDate": "2024-03-01"

templatePath

Path to a folder containing pug templates for rendering timetables. Optional. Defaults to using the templates provided in views/default. All files within the /views/custom folder will be .gitignored, so you can copy the views/default folder to views/custom/myagency and make any modifications needed. Any custom views folder should contain pug templates called timetablepage.pug, timetablepage_full.pug, overview.pug, and overview_full.pug.

"templatePath": "views/custom/my-agency/"

timeFormat

A string defining time format using moment.js tokens. See full list of formatting options. Optional. Defaults to h:mma which yields "8:36pm".

"timeFormat": "h:mma"

useParentStation

Whether to use the parent_station of a stop, if specified instead of the platform or boarding area. Useful if different trips for the same route have different platforms that you want to show up in the timetable as separate stops. Optional. Defaults to true.

"useParentStation": true

verbose

If you don't want the import script to print any output to the console, you can set verbose to false. Optional. Defaults to true.

"verbose": false

zipOutput

Whether to zip the output into one zip file named timetables.zip. Optional. Defaults to false.

"zipOutput": false

agencies​

Specify a download URL​

Specify a path to a zipped GTFS file​

Specify a path to an unzipped GTFS file​

Add GTFS-Realtime URLs​

Exclude files​

Specify coordinate projection​

Multiple agencies​

allowEmptyTimetables​

beautify​

coordinatePrecision​

dateFormat​

daysShortStrings​

daysStrings​

debug​

defaultOrientation​

effectiveDate​

endDate​

interpolatedStopSymbol​

interpolatedStopText​

linkStopUrls​

logFunction​

mapStyleUrl​

menuType​

noDropoffSymbol​

noDropoffText​

noHead​

noPickupSymbol​

noPickupText​

noServiceSymbol​

noServiceText​

outputFormat​

outputPath​

overwriteExistingFiles​

requestDropoffSymbol​

requestDropoffText​

requestPickupSymbol​

requestPickupText​

serviceNotProvidedOnText​

serviceProvidedOnText​

showArrivalOnDifference​

showCalendarExceptions​

showDuplicateTrips​

showMap​

showOnlyTimepoint​

showRouteTitle​

showStopCity​

showStopDescription​

showStoptimesForRequestStops​

skipImport​

sortingAlgorithm​

sqlitePath​

startDate​

templatePath​

timeFormat​

useParentStation​

verbose​

zipOutput​