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Call-prep brief · checked 2026-10-07

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA)

Grade C · 76.0 / 100

Down 0.2 points since 2026-10-06 (C to C).

For this call: lead with the grade and the three fixes below, then confirm the feed is current and the NTD details line up. Each fix is framed as a next step, not a failure.

What changed since the last check

  • Correctness no change
  • Freshness no change
  • Rider experience no change
  • Realtime quality down 1.1

Top three things to fix

  1. Review the rule documentation for 'same_name_and_description_for_stop' at https://gtfs-validator.mobilitydata.org/rules.html and check the flagged rows in your feed.

    Same name and description for stop (flagged by the MobilityData validator). See the linked rule for what this affects.

    This is a validator notice, and the validator decides what each instance covers, so no share of the network can be read from it here.

    Effort: Varies.

  2. Review the rule documentation for 'route_short_name_too_long' at https://gtfs-validator.mobilitydata.org/rules.html and check the flagged rows in your feed.

    Route short name too long (flagged by the MobilityData validator). See the linked rule for what this affects.

    This is a validator notice, and the validator decides what each instance covers, so no share of the network can be read from it here.

    Effort: Varies.

  3. Remove retired stops from the export, or add them back to the trips that should serve them.

    Some stops exist in the feed but no trip ever stops at them. Riders may walk to a stop where no transit vehicle is scheduled to arrive.

    This is a validator notice, and the validator decides what each instance covers, so no share of the network can be read from it here.

    Effort: A review pass in your scheduling software.

Riders and need behind these fixes

  • No ridership snapshot was on hand when this was built, so annual rider-trips are not known.
  • Massachusetts as a whole measures lower on transit need. That is a statewide reading, not one for this feed's service area. Source: US Census ACS 5-year 2022, statewide overlay, as of 2026-10-05.

These describe this feed only. They do not rank agencies, and they do not change the grade or the order of the fixes.

Finding handoff

Move one finding to a recheck

Select one finding. Copy the request, make the change in the feed-producing tool, then compare the next complete run.

Feed evidence
Same name and description for stop (flagged by the MobilityData validator).
Next action
Review the rule documentation for 'same_name_and_description_for_stop' at https://gtfs-validator.mobilitydata.org/rules.html and check the flagged rows in your feed.
Recheck
Publish the changed feed at the same URL. On the next complete, comparable scorecard run, confirm that this finding is no longer reported.
Copy handoff text

NTD GTFS readiness: Ready

Published at a public URL, valid, current, and identified with agency_id: the four feed checks for RY2026 all hold here. Only your own D-10 and P-50 filings make that official; this is a heads-up, not a determination.

Published Ready
Published at a public URL.
Valid Ready
Passes validation with no errors.
Current Ready
Service data covers the next 66 days.
agency_id provided Ready
agency.txt provides agency_id. For RY2026, keep one stable value for each NTD reporter represented in the feed and crosswalk each value on the P-50 form.

agency_id equals NTD ID (optional): Different (allowed). Your feed's agency_id is 3, 1; your National Transit Database ID is 10003. A feed that serves several agencies (a shared regional feed) can legitimately carry more than one agency_id. The values do not need to equal the five-digit NTD ID, so this difference is allowed and carries no score. Confirm that P-50 crosswalks agency_id 3, 1 to NTD ID 10003, and keep the feed value stable. Do not change it solely to make the two values equal.

Key facts

Feed URL
https://cdn.mbta.com/MBTA_GTFS.zip
Last checked
2026-10-07
Service window
66 days of service data remain. Last service date 2026-12-12.
Feed version
Fall 2026, 2026-10-06T18:13:43+00:00, version D
Location
Massachusetts

Part of the Massachusetts portfolio: see where this agency sits among the other feeds in that group before the call.

A data-quality and completeness read to support an agency conversation. Not an official compliance determination. Rubric v1.4, validator 8.0.1.