HeadwayThe product
A planning workbench built around the actual transit decision cycle
HeadwayForge is organized around the way planning teams work: identify service issues, compare alternatives, document impacts, and explain the recommendation to leadership, the public, and funders. Each module connects back to the same source data, so the numbers in the map, memo, CSV, and board packet stay aligned.
Modules
Eight modules, one source of truth
The modules below are different views onto the same network model. Pick one to start, and the rest are already populated with the same agency, routes, and assumptions.
| Module | What it does |
|---|---|
| Service Health | For each route, HeadwayForge calculates service span, trips per day, headways by time period, stop coverage, frequency gaps, and route-level service supply. Planners can filter by mode, agency, corridor, day type, urbanized area, or peer group. |
| Reliability & Live Operations | GTFS-Realtime vehicle positions and trip updates show whether the scheduled network is being delivered. The system highlights stale feeds, missing vehicles, gaps, bunching, and recurring real-time performance issues where available. |
| Scenario Builder | Change route frequency, span, stop patterns, or service levels and compare the before/after effect on access, equity, service supply, and cost proxies. The intent is fast screening before deeper scheduling review. |
| Equity & Title VI | Classify affected routes, compare low-income and minority population impacts, document thresholds, and export tables and summaries for service-equity review. Agency-specific policies can be configured. |
| Access to Opportunity | Use R5 routing to calculate transit and walking travel-time isochrones and count reachable jobs, residents, services, and destinations in 15, 30, and 45 minutes. |
| Peer Benchmarking | Benchmark against NTD peer agencies by ridership, service supply, productivity, operating cost, urbanized area, and mode. The goal is context for leadership and grant narratives. |
| Feed Validation | Track GTFS and GTFS-Realtime quality so agencies can identify schedule and real-time data problems that affect rider apps, internal analysis, and public reporting. |
| Reports & Exports | Export planner-ready CSVs, PDFs, scenario comparison tables, methodology notes, and draft board narratives. Every output traces back to source data and assumptions. |
How it fits together
How the modules connect
Every module reads from one network model built on the same GTFS, GTFS-Realtime, and reference data. When you change a route in the Scenario Builder, the access counts, equity classifications, service-supply totals, and the exported tables all recalculate from that single source — so the map, the memo, the CSV, and the board packet never disagree. That shared model is what carries a question through the full decision cycle.
Detect
Surface where the scheduled and delivered network is underperforming against service standards and peers.
Output: issue list
Diagnose
Work out why an issue is happening — span, frequency, reliability, coverage, or data quality — with the evidence attached.
Output: root-cause brief with confidence + sources
Model
Build and compare alternatives, and read the before/after effect on access, equity, service supply, and cost proxies.
Output: before/after impact table and map
Defend
Package the recommendation for leadership, the public, and funders, with the methodology and assumptions traced back to source.
Output: CSV, PDF, memo draft, methodology appendix
Monitor
Track the change after it goes live against the original projection using schedule and real-time data.
Output: post-implementation performance report
See the modules on your own network.
Pick an agency and generate an instant read on service health, equity, access, feed quality, and peer benchmarks.