Real-Time Bus Predictions

Real-time bus prediction methods.

JSON - Next Buses

Description

Returns next bus arrival times at a stop.

Response Elements

Element Description
Predictions Array containing bus predictions (NextBusPrediction).
StopName Full name of the given StopID.
NextBusPrediction Elements
DirectionNum Denotes a binary direction (0 or 1) of the bus. There is no specific mapping to direction, but a different value for the same route signifies that the buses are traveling in opposite directions. Use the DirectionText element to show the actual destination of the bus.
DirectionText Customer-friendly description of direction and destination for a bus.
Minutes Minutes until bus arrival at this stop. Numeric value.
RouteID Base route name as shown on the bus. This can be used in other bus-related methods. Note that all variants will be shown as their base route names (i.e.: 10Av1 and 10Av2 will be shown as 10A).
TripID Trip identifier. This can be correlated with the data in our bus schedule information as well as bus positions.
VehicleID Bus identifier. This can be correlated with results returned from bus positions.

Try it

Request URL

Request parameters

string

7-digit regional stop ID.

Request headers

string
Subscription key which provides access to this API. Found in your Profile.

Request body

Response 200

Default response type.

{
    "Predictions": [
        {
            "DirectionNum": "0",
            "DirectionText": "North to Bwi - Thurgood Marshall Airport",
            "Minutes": 8,
            "RouteID": "B30",
            "TripID": "6794838",
            "VehicleID": "6217"
        },
        {
            "DirectionNum": "1",
            "DirectionText": "South to Greenbelt Station",
            "Minutes": 37,
            "RouteID": "B30",
            "TripID": "6794868",
            "VehicleID": "6217"
        },
        {
            "DirectionNum": "0",
            "DirectionText": "North to Bwi - Thurgood Marshall Airport",
            "Minutes": 48,
            "RouteID": "B30",
            "TripID": "6794839",
            "VehicleID": "6213"
        },
        {
            "DirectionNum": "1",
            "DirectionText": "South to Greenbelt Station",
            "Minutes": 77,
            "RouteID": "B30",
            "TripID": "6794869",
            "VehicleID": "6213"
        }
    ],
    "StopName": "Bwi Airport + Stop 2"
}

Response 400

Response from invalid Stop ID.

{"Message":"Stop Id not specified, invalid, or does not exist."}

Code samples

@ECHO OFF

curl -v -X GET "https://api.wmata.com/NextBusService.svc/json/jPredictions?StopID=1001195"
-H "api_key: {subscription key}"

--data-ascii "{body}" 

using System;
using System.Net.Http.Headers;
using System.Text;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Web;

namespace CSHttpClientSample
{
    static class Program
    {
        static void Main()
        {
            MakeRequest();
            Console.WriteLine("Hit ENTER to exit...");
            Console.ReadLine();
        }
        
        static async void MakeRequest()
        {
            var client = new HttpClient();
            var queryString = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(string.Empty);

            // Request headers
            client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("api_key", "{subscription key}");

            // Request parameters
            queryString["StopID"] = "1001195";
            var uri = "https://api.wmata.com/NextBusService.svc/json/jPredictions?" + queryString;

            var response = await client.GetAsync(uri);
        }
    }
}	
// // This sample uses the Apache HTTP client from HTTP Components (http://hc.apache.org/httpcomponents-client-ga/)
import java.net.URI;
import org.apache.http.HttpEntity;
import org.apache.http.HttpResponse;
import org.apache.http.client.HttpClient;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpGet;
import org.apache.http.client.utils.URIBuilder;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.HttpClients;
import org.apache.http.util.EntityUtils;

public class JavaSample 
{
    public static void main(String[] args) 
    {
        HttpClient httpclient = HttpClients.createDefault();

        try
        {
            URIBuilder builder = new URIBuilder("https://api.wmata.com/NextBusService.svc/json/jPredictions");

            builder.setParameter("StopID", "1001195");

            URI uri = builder.build();
            HttpGet request = new HttpGet(uri);
            request.setHeader("api_key", "{subscription key}");


            // Request body
            StringEntity reqEntity = new StringEntity("{body}");
            request.setEntity(reqEntity);

            HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(request);
            HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();

            if (entity != null) 
            {
                System.out.println(EntityUtils.toString(entity));
            }
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            System.out.println(e.getMessage());
        }
    }
}


<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>JSSample</title>
    <script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.0/jquery.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body>

<script type="text/javascript">
    $(function() {
        var params = {
            "api_key": "{subscription key}",
            // Request parameters
            "StopID": "1001195",
        };
      
        $.ajax({
            url: "https://api.wmata.com/NextBusService.svc/json/jPredictions?" + $.param(params),
            type: "GET",
        })
        .done(function(data) {
            alert("success");
        })
        .fail(function() {
            alert("error");
        });
    });
</script>
</body>
</html>

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

int main(int argc, const char * argv[])
{
    NSAutoreleasePool * pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
    
    NSString* path = @"https://api.wmata.com/NextBusService.svc/json/jPredictions";
    NSArray* array = @[
                         // Request parameters
                         @"entities=true",
                         @"StopID=1001195",
                      ];
    
    NSString* string = [array componentsJoinedByString:@"&"];
    path = [path stringByAppendingFormat:@"?%@", string];

    NSLog(@"%@", path);

    NSMutableURLRequest* _request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:path]];
    [_request setHTTPMethod:@"GET"];
    // Request headers
    [_request setValue:@"{subscription key}" forHTTPHeaderField:@"api_key"];
    // Request body
    [_request setHTTPBody:[@"{body}" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
    
    NSURLResponse *response = nil;
    NSError *error = nil;
    NSData* _connectionData = [NSURLConnection sendSynchronousRequest:_request returningResponse:&response error:&error];

    if (nil != error)
    {
        NSLog(@"Error: %@", error);
    }
    else
    {
        NSError* error = nil;
        NSMutableDictionary* json = nil;
        NSString* dataString = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:_connectionData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
        NSLog(@"%@", dataString);
        
        if (nil != _connectionData)
        {
            json = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:_connectionData options:NSJSONReadingMutableContainers error:&error];
        }
        
        if (error || !json)
        {
            NSLog(@"Could not parse loaded json with error:%@", error);
        }
        
        NSLog(@"%@", json);
        _connectionData = nil;
    }
    
    [pool drain];

    return 0;
}

<?php
// This sample uses the Apache HTTP client from HTTP Components (http://hc.apache.org/httpcomponents-client-ga/)
require_once 'HTTP/Request2.php';

$request = new Http_Request2('https://api.wmata.com/NextBusService.svc/json/jPredictions');
$url = $request->getUrl();

$headers = array(
    // Request headers
    'api_key' => '{subscription key}',
);

$request->setHeader($headers);

$parameters = array(
    // Request parameters
    'StopID' => '1001195',
);

$url->setQueryVariables($parameters);

$request->setMethod(HTTP_Request2::METHOD_GET);

// Request body
$request->setBody("{body}");

try
{
    $response = $request->send();
    echo $response->getBody();
}
catch (HttpException $ex)
{
    echo $ex;
}

?>
########### Python 2.7 #############
import httplib, urllib, base64

headers = {
    # Request headers
    'api_key': '{subscription key}',
}

params = urllib.urlencode({
    # Request parameters
    'StopID': '1001195',
})

try:
    conn = httplib.HTTPSConnection('api.wmata.com')
    conn.request("GET", "/NextBusService.svc/json/jPredictions?%s" % params, "{body}", headers)
    response = conn.getresponse()
    data = response.read()
    print(data)
    conn.close()
except Exception as e:
    print("[Errno {0}] {1}".format(e.errno, e.strerror))

####################################

########### Python 3.2 #############
import http.client, urllib.request, urllib.parse, urllib.error, base64

headers = {
    # Request headers
    'api_key': '{subscription key}',
}

params = urllib.parse.urlencode({
    # Request parameters
    'StopID': '1001195',
})

try:
    conn = http.client.HTTPSConnection('api.wmata.com')
    conn.request("GET", "/NextBusService.svc/json/jPredictions?%s" % params, "{body}", headers)
    response = conn.getresponse()
    data = response.read()
    print(data)
    conn.close()
except Exception as e:
    print("[Errno {0}] {1}".format(e.errno, e.strerror))

####################################
require 'net/http'

uri = URI('https://api.wmata.com/NextBusService.svc/json/jPredictions')

query = URI.encode_www_form({
    # Request parameters
    'StopID' => '1001195'
})

if uri.query && uri.query.length > 0
    uri.query += '&' + query
else
    uri.query = query
end

request = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri.request_uri)
# Request headers
request['api_key'] = '{subscription key}'
# Request body
request.body = "{body}"

response = Net::HTTP.start(uri.host, uri.port, :use_ssl => uri.scheme == 'https') do |http|
    http.request(request)
end

puts response.body