MBTA V3 API

Name: MBTA V3 API API
Brand: MBTA V3 API
Availability: InStock

✓ Official Vendor SpecMaps GeolocationRouting DirectionsapiKey16 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Look up MBTA bus, subway, commuter rail, and ferry schedules, real-time vehicle positions, and service alerts for the Greater Boston transit network.

Connect the MBTA V3 API to your agent

Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the MBTA V3 API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.

Install Jentic One Beta (Self-Hosted)

Jentic One Host machine

# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh

Agent machine

# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh
jentic register       # connects your agent to your Jentic One instance

Jentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with MBTA V3 API API.

Fetch real-time arrival predictions for any MBTA stop using the /predictions endpoint

Query live vehicle positions and headings across the bus, subway, and commuter rail fleet via /vehicles

Retrieve scheduled departures filtered by route, stop, and service date through /schedules

Look up route metadata, colour, and direction descriptions for the rapid transit and bus network

GET STARTED

Start building with MBTA V3 API API

Explore with Jentic

View OpenAPI Document

The MBTA V3 API provides schedule, real-time vehicle position, and service alert information for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's bus, subway, commuter rail, and ferry network across the Greater Boston area. Responses follow the JSON:API specification with sparse fieldsets, filtering, and included relationships, so clients can request exactly the data they need. The API exposes resources for routes, stops, trips, vehicles, predictions, schedules, alerts, and shapes. Anonymous access is rate-limited; an x-api-key header lifts the cap for higher-volume agents.

Use Cases

Patterns agents use MBTA V3 API API for, with concrete tasks.

★ Real-time arrival board

Build a public arrival board or mobile widget that surfaces upcoming bus, subway, or ferry departures for a chosen MBTA stop. The /predictions endpoint returns ETA, direction, and status for every vehicle approaching the stop, while /alerts surfaces disruptions that affect those predictions. The combined response keeps riders informed of delays, detours, and platform changes within a few seconds of the event.

Fetch /predictions filtered by stop=place-pktrm and direction_id=0, then return the next three departures with route, headsign, and minutes-until-arrival.

Trip planning and routing

Power a trip planner that combines /routes, /stops, and /schedules to suggest journeys across the MBTA network for a given origin, destination, and time. The JSON:API include parameter pulls related resources in a single call, so an agent can answer a routing question without chaining many requests. Useful for travel assistants, accessibility-focused planners, and commuter dashboards.

Call /routes for type=2 (commuter rail), then /schedules with route=CR-Worcester and date=2026-06-09 to list outbound departures from Boston South Station.

Service disruption monitoring

Run an automated monitor that polls /alerts and notifies operations or community channels when new high-severity alerts appear on specific routes. Each alert object includes the affected lifecycle, cause, effect, and a list of informed entities (route, stop, trip), so an agent can route the right notice to the right audience. Reduces the manual work of scanning the MBTA alerts page.

Poll /alerts every 60 seconds filtered by route=Red and severity>=7, and post any new alert title and effect to a Slack channel.

Agent integration via Jentic

Expose MBTA real-time data as a tool that a conversational agent can call when a user asks about Boston transit. Through Jentic the agent receives the operation schema for /predictions, /routes, /stops, /vehicles, and /alerts and can call the right one based on the user's intent without hand-coded glue. The MBTA API key is stored once in the Jentic vault and never appears in the agent's prompt.

Search Jentic for 'get next bus arrival', load the MBTA /predictions operation, and execute it for stop=70061 returning the ETA list to the user.

Key Endpoints

16 endpoints — the mbta v3 api provides schedule, real-time vehicle position, and service alert information for the massachusetts bay transportation authority's bus, subway, commuter rail, and ferry network across the greater boston area.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

GET

/predictions

Real-time arrival and departure predictions

GET

/vehicles

Live vehicle positions across the network

GET

/routes

List all bus, subway, rail, and ferry routes

GET

/stops

Stops and stations with accessibility metadata

GET

/schedules

Scheduled stop times for trips on a date

GET

/trips

Trip details and shape associations

GET

/predictions

Real-time arrival and departure predictions

GET

/vehicles

Live vehicle positions across the network

GET

/routes

List all bus, subway, rail, and ferry routes

GET

/stops

Stops and stations with accessibility metadata

GET

/schedules

Scheduled stop times for trips on a date

Why though Jentic?

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

Credential isolation

The MBTA x-api-key is stored encrypted in the Jentic vault. Agents receive scoped execution rights and never see the raw key in their context window.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search by intent (e.g. 'next bus at MBTA stop') and Jentic returns the matching MBTA operation schema with required parameters such as stop and direction_id, so the agent can call the right endpoint without browsing JSON:API docs.

Time to first call

Direct MBTA integration: 1-2 days to handle JSON:API includes, sparse fieldsets, and rate limit retries. Through Jentic: under 1 hour — search, load, execute.

Related APIs

Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.

Alternative

BART Legacy API

Equivalent real-time and schedule API for Bay Area Rapid Transit instead of Boston

Choose BART when the user is in the San Francisco Bay Area; choose MBTA for Boston-area transit queries.

Alternative

Transport for London Unified API

London transit equivalent covering Tube, bus, rail, and cycle hire

Choose TfL for any London-based transit question; MBTA covers Greater Boston only.

Complementary

Transit App API

Aggregated multi-agency transit data including MBTA

Use Transit App when the agent needs to span multiple transit agencies in one query; use MBTA directly for the freshest Boston-only data.

FAQs

Specific to using MBTA V3 API API through Jentic.

What authentication does the MBTA V3 API use?

The MBTA V3 API uses an API key passed in the x-api-key header (or as the api_key query parameter). Anonymous calls are accepted but rate-limited; a key lifts the cap. When called through Jentic the key is stored in the Jentic vault and injected at execution time, so it never appears in agent prompts.

Can I get real-time vehicle positions with the MBTA V3 API?

Yes. The /vehicles endpoint returns live latitude, longitude, bearing, current_status, and trip association for every MBTA vehicle in service. Filter by route, trip, or label to narrow the result set, and use the JSON:API include parameter to pull the related route or trip in the same response.

What are the rate limits for the MBTA V3 API?

Anonymous requests are limited to roughly 20 per minute; authenticated requests with an x-api-key are allowed 1,000 per minute per key. Agents that poll /predictions or /vehicles continuously should always use a key to avoid 429 responses.

How do I look up the next arrival at an MBTA stop through Jentic?

Search Jentic for 'get next MBTA arrival', load the /predictions operation, and execute it with the stop ID (for example stop=70061 for Park Street southbound) and direction_id. The response is a JSON:API document with arrival_time, departure_time, and the related trip and route resources.

Does the MBTA V3 API include service alerts?

Yes. The /alerts endpoint returns active and upcoming alerts with cause, effect, severity, lifecycle, and a list of informed entities (route, stop, trip). Filter by route or severity to surface only the alerts that matter to a given trip or dashboard.

Is the MBTA V3 API free to use?

Yes. The API is provided free of charge by the MBTA, including for commercial use, subject to its terms of service and rate limits. Register at api-v3.mbta.com to obtain an API key.