BART Legacy API

Name: BART Legacy API API
Brand: BART Legacy API
Availability: InStock

✓ Official Vendor SpecMaps GeolocationRouting DirectionsapiKey6 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Get BART real-time train departure estimates, station data, schedules, and service advisories for the San Francisco Bay Area rail system.

Quickstart

Get started with BART Legacy API in minutes using your preferred integration method.

# Add to your MCP client config (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf)
{
  "jentic": {
    "url": "https://api.jentic.com/mcp",
    "auth": "oauth"
  }
}

# Then ask your agent:
"next BART train arrival at station"

# → Jentic returns the GET /events tool with parameter schema, agent executes.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with BART Legacy API API.

Get real-time departure estimates for any BART station via /etd.aspx

List BART stations with location and platform metadata via /stn.aspx

Plan trips and look up published schedules via /sched.aspx

Pull current service advisories and elevator outages via /bsa.aspx

Look up route information and stop sequences via /route.aspx

GET STARTED

Start building with BART Legacy API API

Explore with Jentic

View OpenAPI Document

The BART Legacy API gives access to Bay Area Rapid Transit data, including real-time departure estimates, station information, schedule planning, and service advisories for the San Francisco Bay Area rail network. The same endpoints accept either XML or JSON via a format query parameter. BART recommends GTFS and GTFS-RT feeds for new integrations, but the legacy REST endpoints remain operational and are well-suited to lightweight commuter dashboards, chatbots, and station signage. An API key is required and is passed in the key query parameter.

Use Cases

Patterns agents use BART Legacy API API for, with concrete tasks.

★ Real-time train arrival board

Build a digital signage or in-app arrival board showing the next several BART trains for a chosen station. /etd.aspx returns each train's destination, platform, and minutes-to-departure, which is exactly what a commuter wants on the platform or in a transit app. Combined with /bsa.aspx for advisories, an agent can show whether the line has any current disruptions alongside the schedule.

Call /etd.aspx with cmd=etd, orig=EMBR, key={api_key}, json=y and return the next three train departures with destination and minutes.

Trip planning across BART

Power a trip planner that suggests routes from origin to destination using the BART scheduled timetable through /sched.aspx with the cmd=routesched and cmd=arrive/depart commands. Useful for tourist guides, commuter dashboards, and travel chat assistants that need authoritative published schedules rather than third-party scrapes.

Call /sched.aspx with cmd=depart, orig=POWL, dest=DBRK, time=now, key={api_key} and return the next departure window.

Service alert monitoring

Run an automation that polls /bsa.aspx for advisories and elevator outages and posts new advisories to a Slack channel or service-status page. /bsa.aspx returns active disruptions; an agent can hash the advisory text to detect new ones between polls. Replaces manual checking of the BART status page for a small operations team.

Poll /bsa.aspx every 60 seconds, diff the advisory list against the previous response, and post any new entries to #transit-alerts.

Agent integration via Jentic

Expose BART data inside a chat or voice assistant by giving the agent search-tool access through Jentic. The agent calls /etd.aspx for arrival queries and /sched.aspx for trip-planning intents, with the BART API key kept inside the Jentic vault. Suitable for assistants that answer 'when is the next BART to SFO?' from a smart speaker or messaging app.

Search Jentic for 'next BART train at station', load /etd.aspx, and execute it with orig=POWL to return the next departures.

Key Endpoints

6 endpoints — the bart legacy api gives access to bay area rapid transit data, including real-time departure estimates, station information, schedule planning, and service advisories for the san francisco bay area rail network.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

GET

/etd.aspx

Real-time train departure estimates by station

GET

/stn.aspx

Station metadata and access information

GET

/sched.aspx

Published schedules and trip planning

GET

/bsa.aspx

Current service advisories and elevator outages

GET

/route.aspx

Route definitions and stop sequences

GET

/version.aspx

API version and data refresh time

GET

/etd.aspx

Real-time train departure estimates by station

GET

/stn.aspx

Station metadata and access information

GET

/sched.aspx

Published schedules and trip planning

GET

/bsa.aspx

Current service advisories and elevator outages

GET

/route.aspx

Route definitions and stop sequences

Why though Jentic?

Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.

Credential isolation

The BART API key is stored in the Jentic vault and appended to the key query parameter at execution time. Agents call BART operations without ever holding the key in their own context window.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search by intent (e.g. 'next BART train at station') and Jentic returns the right /etd.aspx operation with cmd preset to etd, so the agent does not need to learn the cmd-based BART URL conventions.

Time to first call

Direct BART integration: half a day to wrangle the cmd-based query interface, dual XML/JSON responses, and station code dictionaries. Through Jentic: under 30 minutes — search, load, execute.

Related APIs

Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.

Alternative

MBTA V3 API

Boston-area equivalent for real-time and schedule transit data

Choose MBTA when the user is in Greater Boston; choose BART for the San Francisco Bay Area.

Alternative

Transport for London Unified API

London transit equivalent for tube, bus, and rail

Choose TfL for any London transit query; BART covers only the San Francisco Bay Area rail network.

Complementary

Transit App API

Aggregated multi-agency transit data including BART

Use Transit App when an agent needs cross-agency Bay Area data (BART plus Muni and AC Transit); use BART directly for the freshest train-only data.

FAQs

Specific to using BART Legacy API API through Jentic.

What authentication does the BART Legacy API use?

The BART Legacy API uses an API key passed in the key query parameter on every request. A default public key is published by BART for low-volume use; production agents should request their own key from BART. Through Jentic the key sits in the Jentic vault and is appended automatically at execution time.

Can I get real-time BART train departures with this API?

Yes. /etd.aspx with cmd=etd and orig set to a station abbreviation returns the next several train departures for that station, including destination, platform, and minutes-to-departure. Pass json=y to receive JSON instead of the default XML.

Does the BART API include service advisories?

Yes. /bsa.aspx returns current service advisories and /elev cmd returns elevator outage information. Each advisory includes a posted time and free-text description suitable for posting to a status page or Slack channel.

What are the rate limits for the BART Legacy API?

BART does not publish hard rate limits, but the service is best-effort and intended for civic and developer use. Agents that poll /etd.aspx for many stations should space requests by at least a second per request and back off on any non-200 response.

How do I look up the next BART train through Jentic?

Search Jentic for 'next BART train arrival', load the /etd.aspx operation, and execute it with cmd=etd, orig set to the station abbreviation (for example POWL for Powell Street), and json=y. The response lists each upcoming train with destination, platform, and minutes.

Should I use the BART Legacy API or GTFS feeds?

BART recommends GTFS and GTFS-RT for new integrations because they are standardised across transit agencies. The Legacy API remains operational and is convenient for small integrations that need only one or two endpoints, station signage, and quick chatbot answers without parsing GTFS-RT protobufs.