Transport

API Documentation

• Rate limiting
• Resources
  • /locations
  • /connections
  • /stationboard
• Objects
  • location
  • coordinates
  • connection
  • prognosis
  • stop
  • section
  • journey
• Limit response
• Source
• History
• Privacy

Rate Limit

There is no fixed limit per client. The service is shared by thousands of applications, so please cache what you can: the timetable changes twice a week, real-time data every 30 seconds. An application that asks the same question every few seconds will be throttled.

API Resources

The Transport API builds on REST style resources which respond in JSON. Individual resources are detailed below. Cross Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) is enabled, so you can easily use the API on transport.opendata.ch from any website (avoid setting custom headers though).

/locations

Returns the matching locations for the given parameters. Either query or ( x and y ) are required.

The locations in the response are scored to determine which is the most exact location.

This method can return a refine response, what means that the request has to be redone.

Resource URL

http://transport.opendata.ch/v1/locations

Request Parameters

Response parameters

Example Request

GET http://transport.opendata.ch/v1/locations?query=Basel

Example response

{
    "stations": [
        {
            "id": "8500010",
            "name": "Basel SBB",
            "score": null,
            "coordinate": {
                "type": "WGS84",
                "x": 47.547408,
                "y": 7.589547
            },
            "distance": null
        }
    ]
}
            

/connections

Returns the next connections from a location to another.

Resource URL

http://transport.opendata.ch/v1/connections

Request Parameters

Response parameters

Example Requests

GET http://transport.opendata.ch/v1/connections?from=Lausanne&to=Genève

which is the same as

GET http://transport.opendata.ch/v1/connections?from=8501120&to=8501008

Example response

{
    "connections" : [
        {
            "from" : {
                "arrival" : null,
                "arrivalTimestamp" : null,
                "departure" : "2012-03-31T08:58:00+02:00",
                "departureTimestamp" : 1333177080,
                "platform" : "7",
                "prognosis" : {
                    "platform" : null,
                    "arrival" : null
                    "departure" : null
                    "capacity1st" : "-1",
                    "capacity2nd" : "-1",
                },
                "station" : {
                    "coordinate" : {
                        "type" : "WGS84",
                        "x" : 46.516785,
                        "y" : 6.629086
                    },
                    "id" : "8501120",
                    "name" : "Lausanne",
                    "score" : null
                }
            },
            "to" : {
                "arrival" : "2012-03-31T09:46:00+02:00",
                "arrivalTimestamp" : 1333179960,
                "departure" : null,
                "departureTimestamp" : null,
                "platform" : "2",
                "prognosis" : {
                    "platform" : null,
                    "arrival" : null,
                    "departure" : null
                    "capacity1st" : null,
                    "capacity2nd" : null,
                },
                "station" : {
                    "coordinate" : {
                        "type" : "WGS84",
                        "x" : 46.210217,
                        "y" : 6.142437
                    },
                    "id" : "8501008",
                    "name" : "Genève",
                    "score" : null
                }
            }
        },
    ],
    // ...
}
            

/stationboard

Returns the next connections leaving from a specific location.

Resource URL

http://transport.opendata.ch/v1/stationboard

Request Parameters

Response parameters

Example Requests

GET http://transport.opendata.ch/v1/stationboard?station=Aarau&limit=10

which is the same as

GET http://transport.opendata.ch/v1/stationboard?id=008502113&limit=10

Example response

{
    "stationboard" : [
    {
        "stop":
        {
            "station":
            {
                "id": "8502996",
                "name": "Aarau, Bahnhof",
                "score": null,
                "coordinate":
                {
                    "type" : "WGS84",
                    "x": 47.39202,
                    "y": 8.050864
                }
            },
            "arrival": null,
            "arrivalTimestamp": null,
            "departure": "2012-03-31T14:39:00+02:00",
            "departureTimestamp": 1333197540,
            "platform": "",
            "prognosis":
            {
                "platform": null,
                "arrival": null,
                "departure": null,
                "capacity1st": "-1",
                "capacity2nd": "-1"
            }
        },
        "name": "BUS13543",
        "category": "BUS",
        "number": "13543",
        "operator": null,
        "to": "Frick, Bahnhof"
    },{
        "stop":
        {
            "station":
            {
                "id": "8502996",
                "name": "Aarau, Bahnhof",
                "score": null,
                "coordinate":
                {
                    "type": "WGS84",
                    "x": 47.39202,
                    "y": 8.050864
                }
            },
            "arrival": null,
            "arrivalTimestamp": null,
            "departure": "2012-03-31T14:39:00+02:00",
            "departureTimestamp": 1333197540,
            "platform": "",
            "prognosis":
            {
                "platform": null,
                "arrival": null,
                "departure": null,
                "capacity1st": "-1",
                "capacity2nd": "-1"
            }
        },
        "name": "Bus 2",
        "category": "Bus",
        "number": "2",
        "operator": "BBA",
        "to": "Aarau Rohr, Unterdorf"
    },
    // ...
    ]
}
            

API Objects

API responses are composites of the following objects:

Location Object

Coordinates Object

Connection Object

A connection represents a possible journey between two locations.

Service Object

Operation information for a connection.

Prognosis Object

A prognosis contains "realtime" informations on the status of a connection checkpoint.

Stop Object

A checkpoint represents an arrival or a departure point (in time and space) of a connection.

Section Object

A connection consists of one or multiple sections.

Journey Object

The actual transportation of a section, e.g. a bus or a train between two stations.

Limit response

You can limit the response data with the fields parameter. If any fields[] is passed, only the specified fields are in the response. The API is aware of the hierarchy, if you set a field, everything below is in the response unless a more specific (further down in the hierarchy) field is set.

Example Request

GET http://transport.opendata.ch/v1/connections?from=Lausanne&to=Genève&fields[]=connections/from/departure&fields[]=connections/to/arrival

Example response

{
    "connections":[
        {
            "from":{
                "departure":"2012-05-01T19:42:00+0200",
            },
            "to":{
                "arrival":"2012-05-01T20:15:00+0200",
            }
        },
    ],
    //....
}

            

Example Request

GET http://transport.opendata.ch/v1/connections?from=Lausanne&to=Genève&fields[]=connections/from&fields[]=connections/to/station

Example response

{
    "connections":[
        {
            "from":{
                "station":{
                    "id":"8501120",
                    "name":"Lausanne",
                    "score":null,
                    "coordinate":{
                        "type":"WGS84",
                        "x":46.516785,
                        "y":6.629086
                    }
                },
                "arrival":null,
                "arrivalTimestamp":null,
                "departure":"2012-05-01T19:42:00+0200",
                "departureTimestamp":1335894120,
                "platform":"5",
                "prognosis":{
                    "platform":null,
                    "arrival":null,
                    "departure":null,
                    "capacity1st":"1",
                    "capacity2nd":"1"
                }
            },
            "to":{
                "station":{
                    "id":"8501008",
                    "name":"Gen\u00e8ve",
                    "score":null,
                    "coordinate":{
                        "type":"WGS84",
                        "x":46.210217,
                        "y":6.142437
                    }
                }
            }
        },
    ],
    // ...
}
            

Source

The API keeps its own copy of the Swiss public transport data and answers every request from it.

Timetable

• What we fetch: the national timetable of all Swiss public transport as GTFS from opentransportdata.swiss, one file per timetable year (about 300 MB): timetable 2026, timetable 2027.
• At the source: a complete new version about twice a week, usually on Wednesday and Saturday. The next timetable year is published in the autumn, ahead of the change in mid-December.
• What we do with it: every hour we look whether a new version is out. A new version is downloaded once, and loaded when the real-time feed has switched to it - the afternoon after publication - so that delays always match the timetable. We keep the days from a week ago to three months ahead in a database; across the December change, both timetable years are merged.
• In the API: a new timetable answers /locations, /stationboard and /connections within the hour it is loaded; the days held move on weekly.

Real time

• What we fetch: delays, cancellations and added trips as GTFS-RT from opentransportdata.swiss (an API key is needed).
• At the source: renewed every 30 seconds.
• What we do with it: station boards read it every 30 seconds, the journey planner every minute.
• In the API: delay and prognosis are at most about a minute behind the source.

Connections

• How: computed here by MOTIS, an open-source journey planner (MIT licence), on the very file of timetable days the database holds and on the same real-time feed, read every minute. For a journey it finds the connections that are best in arrival time and in the number of changes, and /connections writes them in the form /v1 has always used: sections, products, platforms, delays.
• Changes and walks: transfer times are those of the national timetable, per station; where the timetable gives a walk to a neighbouring stop that is shorter than the station's transfer time, the walk counts, as in the official journey planners. Walks between stops the timetable does not link, and the way from an address or a coordinate to the first stop and from the last stop to the destination, follow the streets of OpenStreetMap - up to 20 minutes on foot. The way to the first stop and from the last is walked at 1.4 m/s (about 5 km/h) to the platform itself, so near a large station it can take a few minutes more than to the station's entrance.
• In the API: each new timetable and each weekly move of the days held rebuilds the planner, which takes 10 to 20 minutes. It is built beside the running one, which keeps answering until the new one takes over within seconds.

Streets, addresses and places

• What we fetch: the Swiss extract of OpenStreetMap by Geofabrik (about 550 MB).
• At the source: edited continuously, the extract published daily.
• What we do with it: walks to, from and between stops follow its streets, and its addresses and points of interest are what /locations finds besides stops. Searched on this server; no query leaves it.
• In the API: renewed monthly.

Shared mobility

• What we fetch: bikes, scooters and cars to rent, as GBFS from sharedmobility.ch of the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (open use, source to be named).
• At the source and here: every minute. /connections with sharedMobility=1 and the journey planner page use them for the way to the first stop and from the last; without the parameter, /connections walks, as it always has.

Operator names

• What we fetch: the names operators go by in the national timetable's HAFAS data (HRDF), from opentransportdata.swiss.
• In the API: operator gives these shortened names, not the full company names.

The source code is on GitLab. If you show the data, please name its source: Timetable data: opentransportdata.swiss.

History

• 2012: Opendata.ch starts the Transport API, written by Fabian Vogler (GitHub, his commits on GitLab) and the community, on top of the SBB's timetable interface.
• 2017: the SBB systems behind it are to be switched off. search.ch steps in with its own web service, and from 31 July 2017 the API translates its answers.
• 5 October 2026: the national timetable and its real-time data are open data, so the API answers from them directly: its own copy of the timetable and its own journey planner. The parameters and the answers of /v1 stay as they were.