Update on GTFS-Fares v2

Hello everyone, this issue is to present MobilityData's next steps on GTFS-Fares v2 to keep the community updated as well as to hear everyone's thoughts on this.

We are very happy to announce that MobilityData will continue working on GTFS-Fares v2 by adding more functionalities into the specification. This comes as a successor to the base implementation, which added fare legs, fare areas, complex transfers, and tickets. We are now working on the second implementation of GTFS-Fares v2, which covers the following features:

• Variable pricing by time of day, or by day of week, month, or year
• Fare containers
• Allowing multiple routes to behave as a single route (transfer rules ignored)
• Zone-based fares
• Inter-agency transfers (using fare_leg_rules.transfer_only, proposal here)

The data producer and consumer for the second implementation of GTFS-Fares v2 are:

• Consumer: Apple
• Producer: Interline

Timeline:

We are planning to open separate pull requests for features that do not overlap to keep focus on the discussions and facilitate the consensus building process.

Week of August 1:

Open pull requests for:

• Variable pricing by time of day, or by day of week, month, or year
• Fare containers

The above two features are straightforward, and MobilityData does not foresee any challenges to reaching consensus within the community. We are comfortable with opening pull requests and going through the GTFS change process leading up to a vote at this time.

For the remaining features, more time is needed for conversations to close out open issues and come to consensus. Hence, below is the plan for moving forward with regards to these features:

Open GitHub issues for:

• Allowing multiple routes to behave as a single route (transfer rules ignored)
• Zone-based fares
• Inter-agency transfers (using fare_leg_rules.transfer_only, proposal here)

Week of August 8:

• Discussions with the community on the three open GitHub issues.

Week of August 15:

• MobilityData will share a summary of the GitHub discussions.

Week of August 22:

• If the items are still unresolved, MobilityData will host three meetings with interested stakeholders to close them out. Full details on the days and times of the meetings will be posted in each issue.

Week of August 29:

• MobilityData will share a summary outlining the outcomes from the stakeholder meetings.

Week of September 05:

• For the issues that have been resolved, MobilityData will open pull requests and go through the GTFS change process leading to a vote.

Week of September 12:

• If there still are unresolved issues, MobilityData will facilitate another round of community discussions to close out any outstanding issues.

Week of September 19:

• MobilityData will share a summary outlining the outcomes from the stakeholder meetings. If the issues have been resolved, MobilityData will open pull requests and go through the GTFS change process leading to a vote.