Boston MBTA Transit

About Boston MBTA Transit

The V3 API provides access to Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) transit data, covering subway, bus, commuter rail, ferry, and paratransit services. It exposes GTFS, GTFS Realtime, and MBTA-specific data through a JSON:API-formatted interface, with endpoints covering alerts, facilities, lines, predictions, routes, route patterns, schedules, services, shapes, stops, trips, and vehicles.

The API supports filtering, sorting, and including related resources in query results, such as combining route and stop filters or including route details within schedule responses. Vehicle endpoints return position data including direction and coordinates, while prediction and schedule endpoints return arrival and departure times.

A free API key is recommended for development and is required to make a default of 1,000 requests per minute, control the API version, and stream requests. The API is intended for developers building applications that use MBTA transit data, such as trip planning or real-time vehicle tracking tools.

Key features

• Provides GTFS, GTFS Realtime, and MBTA-specific transit data via a JSON:API-format REST API
• Real-time vehicle position data including direction, latitude, and longitude
• Filtering and sorting of results using JSON:API-style query parameters
• Ability to include related resources (and nested includes) in a single response
• API key support for higher rate limits, version control, and streaming requests

Frequently asked questions