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Intercity Bus Atlas: Maps and Data

Friday, January 26, 2024

The Intercity Bus Atlas (ICBA) is a mapping application which features scheduled intercity bus service data.  The source data, supplied by participating North American bus service providers, are published compliant to the General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS), which includes operational information about stops, routes, trips, schedules, fares, and transfers.  The Bureau of Transportations Statistics collects the data from various provider websites, compiles them into a single, geospatially enabled database, and then publishes them for research, analysis, and planning.

Intercity Bus Atlas map

Click on the screenshot image of the BTS Intercity Bus Atlas (ICBA) mapping application to view the interactive tool:

Click on this screenshot image of the BTS Intercity Bus Atlas (ICBA) mapping application to view the tool.

All ICBA data are licensed under version 4.0 of the Creative Commons, Attribution - Non-Commercial International License (CC BY NC 4.0). Further Terms of Use include:

  • The data are not fit for trip planning, scheduling, navigation, real-time, or near-real-time, use by passengers, transportation operators, service providers, or transportation planners.
  • Using the data for research, analysis, and planning is permitted;
  • All other uses of the data is prohibited; and
  • Substantive material alterations are not permitted

Intercity Bus Atlas data downloads

BTS offers the stop and route data shown on the Intercity Bus Atlas map as downloadable geographic information systems (GIS) layers and as map services (for consumption via web-based mapping applications) through the National Transportation Atlas Database (NTAD). 

Use the following links to view and download the most recent versions (January 26, 2024) of these datasets:

Map layer Description Source(s) Attributes
Stops All stops served by a participating ICBA Provider, represented as GIS point features. Based on the "stops.txt" GTFS files submitted by each ICBA Provider. Stop locations are based on the provided latitude and longitude coordinates.
  • Stop ID
  • Stop name
  • Stop time zone
  • ICBA Provider name(s)
  • Feed start date
  • Feed end date
  • Stop code*
  • Platform code*
  • Stop description*
  • Zone ID*
  • Stop URL*
  • Location type*
  • Parent station*
  • Wheelchair boarding availability*
  • State
  • County
  • Census-designated place
  • Urban area
  • Urban/Rural designation, from the Census Bureau
  • Urban/Rural designation, from FTA
  • AIANNH (American Indian/Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian) area
Routes All routes served by a participating ICBA Provider, represented as GIS line features. Based on the "routes.txt" and "shapes.txt" GTFS files submitted by each ICBA Provider. Route locations are based on the sequential latitude and longitude coordinates provided for each route segment.
  • Route ID
  • ICBA Provider name(s)
  • Feed start date
  • Feed end date
  • Route name*
  • Route description*
  • Route URL*
  • Route color*
  • Route stop order*
  • Continuous pick-up availability*
  • Continuous drop-off availability*

Notes

  • If the GTFS files submitted on behalf of an ICBA Provider lack a valid "shapes.txt" file, that Provider's routes are not shown on the map and not available for download.
  • Attributes marked with an asterisk(*) are optional fields within the GTFS and therefore only available if included by an ICBA Provider. These columns have been left blank where not provided.
  • Attributes in italics were appended by BTS and were not included in the GTFS files submitted by the ICBA Providers. These locational attributes were spatially joined from the most recent available vintage of TIGER geographies from the US Census Bureau.
  • The "feed start date" and "feed end date" columns indicate the calendar dates (inclusive) that each stop or route was included in the GTFS schedule data provided by the corresponding ICBA Provider. Outside of these dates, these stops and routes should not be presumed valid or active.