If your agency receives FTA Section 5311 (rural) or Section 5307 (urban) formula funding and reports to the National Transit Database, NTD requires a public, accurate GTFS feed for your fixed-route service — and Report Year 2026 is when the newest technical requirements land for reduced, rural and tribal reporters. Here's exactly what's required, and the fastest way to get there.
agency_id linked to NTD IDshapes.txt includedIf your agency is an NTD reporter — which generally means you receive FTA Urbanized Area (5307) or Rural Area (5311) formula funding — and you operate any fixed-route service, including deviated fixed-route, then yes: NTD requires you to publish a public, web-hosted static GTFS feed and certify annually, as part of your NTD reporting package, that it's accurate and up to date.
agency_id field cross-walked to your NTD ID (matching your P-50 form)shapes.txt file — the actual route-line geometry, not just stops
FTA finalized new NTD reporting changes in a July 2025 Federal Register notice. Two technical additions
to the GTFS requirement — the agency_id/NTD ID cross-walk and the shapes.txt
requirement — took effect for full reporters in Report Year 2025, and take effect for
reduced, rural and tribal reporters in Report Year 2026. If your agency reports on that
schedule, this is the reporting year it applies to you.
Stops and routes are straightforward to list in a spreadsheet. shapes.txt is different —
it's the actual line your vehicle drives, point by point, which normally means separate GIS software most
one- or two-person transit offices don't have lying around. Hand-built spreadsheet feeds routinely miss it
or fail validation on the first attempt, because drawing accurate route geometry isn't really a
spreadsheet task.
This is exactly the part AddTransit's GTFS Editor is built to remove: a built-in route/shape editor
lets you draw your route directly on a map, or import it, instead of hand-plotting coordinates in a
separate GIS tool. AddTransit generates a valid shapes.txt from that route, validates
the whole feed against the GTFS spec, and hosts it live for $15 per route per month,
no setup fee to start. If your NTD deadline is close and you'd rather send us your timetable and have
it built for you, the Setup-as-a-Service Basic package ($199) covers exactly
that: import, build, validate and publish, done in about 45 minutes of our time.
If your regional MPO or transit association already builds and hosts a GTFS feed that covers your service, you're likely already covered — this page is about making sure a feed that meets the RY2026 technical bar (agency_id + shapes) genuinely exists and is public, not a sales pitch that you need to buy software to satisfy a legal requirement.
Want to check your existing feed instead of starting from scratch? Our GTFS validation guide walks through the same checks NTD inspections look for.
Do it yourself — free to start. Build your routes, stops, schedule and shapes in the AddTransit GTFS Editor. Hosting and publishing to Google Maps and other GTFS consumers runs on the standard $15/route/month plan once you're ready to publish.
Create a free accountDone for you — from $199. Send your timetable and route list; we import, build, validate and publish a compliant feed, fixed price and scope agreed before we start.
See setup packagesSources: FTA Federal Register notice 2025-12813 (published July 10, 2025) and the FTA NTD Recent Developments FAQ. This page is informational and is not legal advice — confirm your agency's specific reporting obligations with your NTD analyst.
