Call-prep brief · checked 2026-08-23
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA)
Grade B · 80.5 / 100
Unchanged since 2026-08-22.
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
Top three things to fix
Use mixed case for stop names and headsigns (e.g. 'Main St & 2nd Ave', not 'MAIN ST & 2ND AVE').
Some rider-facing names are in ALL CAPS or all lowercase. ALL-CAPS stop and headsign names are harder to read in apps and are read awkwardly by screen readers.
Effort: Often a bulk fix in your scheduling software.
Check the flagged stop times for transposed minutes.
Some scheduled trips move faster between stops than a transit vehicle can. Usually a typo'd stop time; riders get arrival times no transit vehicle can meet.
Effort: A few minutes per flagged trip.
Review the flagged fields and fill in the ones your riders would use.
Some files leave out fields that GTFS asks for but does not require. Recommended fields like agency_phone or stop descriptions make the feed more useful to riders and trip planners.
Effort: A field at a time; not urgent.
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
- Some rider-facing names are in ALL CAPS or all lowercase.
- Next action
- Use mixed case for stop names and headsigns (e.g. 'Main St & 2nd Ave', not 'MAIN ST & 2ND AVE').
- 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
- Feed evidence
- Some scheduled trips move faster between stops than a transit vehicle can.
- Next action
- Check the flagged stop times for transposed minutes.
- 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
- Feed evidence
- Some files leave out fields that GTFS asks for but does not require.
- Next action
- Review the flagged fields and fill in the ones your riders would use.
- 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 63 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 VTA; your National Transit Database ID is 90013. 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 VTA to NTD ID 90013, and keep the feed value stable. Do not change it solely to make the two values equal.
The bar this score answers to
The published guideline in California is California Transit Data Guidelines. Caltrans' published quality guidelines and compliance checklist; this rubric is anchored to them.
Key facts
- Feed URL
- https://gtfs.vta.org/gtfs_vta.zip
- Last checked
- 2026-08-23
- Service window
- 63 days of service data remain. Last service date 2026-10-25.
- Feed version
- 2026-07-27_13:41
- Location
- California
Part of the California portfolio: see where this agency sits among the state's feeds before the call.
A data-quality and completeness read to support an agency conversation. Not an official compliance determination. Rubric v1.3, validator 8.0.1.