DC Metro

Public Transport Data

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Event-Driven Data Science Use Case with Ensign and WMATA

About This Data Source

The capital of the United States is the District of Columbia, also known as Washington, DC. Over 20 million people travel to DC every year, and it has an extensive subway system that locals call "Metro". The Metro gets a lot of traffic, including from locals, but also from large numbers of tourists from around the world. Transportation data often displays very interesting temporal patterns that are impossible to capture without a time series dataset. Think that might be useful for something you're researching? The District of Columbia's transportation authority (WMATA) provides public transportation data such as real-time bus and rail predictions. Use Ensign with this data source to extrapolate a time series dataset to detect seasonal and other patterns.

Data

Bus & train trip updates, alerts, delays, and vehicle positions.

Account Required

Yes

License

tooltip

Free

API Key

Yes

API Type

JSON, GTFS protocol buffers

SDKS

N/A

Limits

The default tier (free) is rate-limited to 10 calls/second and 50,000 calls per day.

Click here for the code to get data such as:

New metro report received: {'incident_id': '001E815C-4A62-47EE-843D-5F0B788C799C', 'incident_type': 'Alert', 'routes_affected': ['P12'], 'description': 'Due to an accident at Addison Rd Station, buses may experience delays.', 'date_updated': '2023-07-03T13:43:14'}

New metro report received: {'incident_id': '38102CBA-04FA-4D88-B9B8-41E9D2549C73', 'incident_type': 'Alert', 'routes_affected': ['32'], 'description': 'Due to an accident on Pennsylvania Ave SE at 6th St, buses may experience delays.', 'date_updated': '2023-07-03T13:20:19'}

New metro report received: {'incident_id': '03EF58CA-4C96-477B-B0F8-E0B5EA2179D5', 'incident_type': 'Alert', 'routes_affected': ['32', '33', '36'], 'description': 'Buses are detouring, due to the DC 4th of July Celebration. More info at \nhttps://buseta.wmata.com', 'date_updated': '2023-07-03T06:15:34'}

New metro report received: {'incident_id': 'C83592B3-8399-4426-8568-FFCA1E5B3D9D', 'incident_type': 'Alert', 'routes_affected': ['W4'], 'description': 'Due to a mechanical issue at Anacostia Station on the W4 route, buses may experience delays.', 'date_updated': '2023-07-03T13:07:18'}

New metro report received: {'incident_id': '7B640278-9219-430F-A59C-81C5F7BDE5EA', 'incident_type': 'Alert', 'routes_affected': ['F4'], 'description': 'Due to a mechanical issue on Riggs Rd at East West Hwy on the F4 Route, buses are experiencing delays.', 'date_updated': '2023-07-03T12:18:34'}

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