Transport for Spain API

Overview

Transport for Spain provides a suite of APIs designed to deliver comprehensive access to public transport data throughout Spain. This platform caters to a range of users, from independent developers creating transit applications to urban planners analyzing mobility patterns and logistics firms optimizing delivery routes. The core offering includes real-time General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) data, historical transit records, and route planning functionalities.

The Transport for Spain documentation details the various endpoints available, enabling integration into diverse software solutions. For instance, developers can query current bus locations, train schedules, or metro arrival predictions, facilitating the creation of applications that assist commuters. Urban planners can utilize historical data to understand peak travel times, identify bottlenecks, and assess the impact of new infrastructure projects. Logistics companies might use the route planning API to determine optimal public transport connections for their personnel or goods, potentially reducing operational costs and improving efficiency.

The API is structured to provide data in common formats, which allows for straightforward parsing and integration into existing systems. The platform's emphasis on real-time data ensures that applications built upon it can offer up-to-the-minute information, which is crucial for dynamic environments like public transportation. Furthermore, the availability of SDKs for popular programming languages such as Python and JavaScript aims to simplify the development process, reducing the time and effort required to build and deploy solutions that consume this data.

Transport for Spain also addresses data privacy and regulatory requirements, including adherence to GDPR standards for data handling. This focus on compliance is intended to provide assurance to users regarding the responsible management of public transport data. The platform's free developer tier offers an entry point for evaluation and small-scale projects, allowing potential users to explore the API's capabilities before committing to a paid plan. This tiered approach supports a spectrum of use cases, from individual hobbyists to large enterprise deployments requiring extensive data access and support.

Key features

• Real-time GTFS API: Provides live updates on vehicle positions, service alerts, and estimated arrival/departure times across various public transport modes in Spain. This allows applications to display current transit conditions.
• Historical Transit Data API: Offers access to archived public transport data, including past schedules, route changes, and performance metrics. This is useful for trend analysis, urban planning, and academic research.
• Route Planning API: Calculates optimal routes between two points using public transport, considering factors like transfers, travel time, and service availability. This supports trip planning applications and logistics optimization.
• Multi-modal Coverage: Integrates data from various public transport operators, encompassing buses, trains, metros, and trams across different Spanish cities and regions.
• Developer SDKs: Provides client libraries for JavaScript, Python, and Ruby to streamline integration and reduce development effort. These SDKs handle authentication and request formatting.
• GDPR Compliance: Adheres to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) standards, ensuring data privacy and responsible handling of information.
• Interactive API Explorer: The API reference documentation includes interactive tools for testing endpoints directly in the browser, aiding in development and debugging.

Pricing

Transport for Spain offers a free developer tier and scales up to enterprise plans. Pricing is effective as of 2026-05-28.

For detailed and up-to-date pricing information, please refer to the Transport for Spain pricing page.

Common integrations

• Mobile Applications: Developers frequently integrate the Real-time GTFS API into iOS and Android applications to provide live transit information to users.
• Smart City Dashboards: Urban planning departments often connect to the Historical Transit Data API to populate dashboards for monitoring urban mobility trends and infrastructure performance.
• Logistics and Delivery Platforms: Companies use the Route Planning API to integrate public transport options into their logistics software, optimizing staff movement or last-mile delivery.
• Mapping Services: Integration with popular mapping libraries (e.g., Leaflet, Mapbox) to visualize real-time vehicle locations and planned routes on custom maps.
• Data Analytics Platforms: Exporting historical data for analysis in tools like Tableau or Power BI to generate reports on public transport efficiency and usage patterns.

Alternatives

• Moovit API: Provides global real-time public transit information and trip planning.
• Google Maps Platform (Transit API): Offers transit data and trip planning as part of Google's broader mapping services.
• OpenTripPlanner: An open-source multi-modal trip planning engine that can integrate various data sources.

Getting started

To begin using the Transport for Spain API, developers first need to sign up for a developer account and obtain an API key from the Transport for Spain developer portal. Once the key is acquired, it can be used to authenticate requests to the various API endpoints. The following Python example demonstrates how to fetch real-time bus locations for a specific route using the provided SDK. This script makes an authenticated request to the Real-time GTFS API and prints the received data, illustrating a fundamental interaction with the platform.

import transportforspain

# Replace with your actual API key
API_KEY = "YOUR_API_KEY"

# Initialize the client with your API key
client = transportforspain.Client(api_key=API_KEY)

try:
    # Example: Fetch real-time bus locations for a specific route (e.g., route_id '123')
    # The specific endpoint path and parameters can be found in the API reference.
    # For demonstration, we'll use a hypothetical endpoint for bus locations.
    print("Fetching real-time bus locations...")
    bus_locations = client.realtime.get_bus_locations(route_id="123")

    if bus_locations:
        print(f"Found {len(bus_locations)} buses for route_id '123':")
        for bus in bus_locations:
            print(f"  Bus ID: {bus['id']}, Latitude: {bus['latitude']}, Longitude: {bus['longitude']}, Status: {bus['status']}")
    else:
        print("No bus locations found for route_id '123'.")

except transportforspain.exceptions.TransportForSpainAPIError as e:
    print(f"API Error: {e}")
except Exception as e:
    print(f"An unexpected error occurred: {e}")

This Python code snippet provides a basic illustration. For comprehensive details on available endpoints, request parameters, and response structures, developers should consult the Transport for Spain API reference documentation. The documentation also includes examples for other programming languages and more advanced use cases, such as filtering data by city or specific transport lines, and handling pagination for larger datasets. Implementing robust error handling and rate limit management is also recommended for production applications, as outlined in the Transport for Spain best practices guide.