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An arrival board answers “what’s leaving near me, right now?” in a single call. Instead of finding nearby stops and then making one arrivals request per stop, mta.subway.arrivalBoard() and mta.bus.arrivalBoard() return the closest stations to a coordinate with their upcoming arrivals already attached and grouped — perfect for a lobby screen, a “near me” tab, or a kiosk.
Arrival boards require a hosted apiKey. See Authentication to get one.

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Prerequisites

  • mta-js installed (npm install mta-js)
  • An MTA API key set as MTA_API_KEY in your environment
1

Fetch the subway board for a location

Pass a lat / lon and how big you want the board. limitStations caps how many stations come back (max 20); limitArrivals caps arrivals per direction (max 10).
import { MTA } from 'mta-js'

const mta = new MTA({ apiKey: process.env.MTA_API_KEY })

const board = await mta.subway.arrivalBoard({
  lat: 40.7356,
  lon: -73.9906,
  limitStations: 5,
  limitArrivals: 3,
})
2

Render each station and its directions

Each entry has a station, its distanceMeters, and a directions array. Each direction bundles a direction, an optional headsign, and that direction’s arrivals.
for (const { station, distanceMeters, directions } of board) {
  console.log(`${station.name} (${Math.round(distanceMeters)}m)`)
  for (const dir of directions) {
    for (const arrival of dir.arrivals) {
      console.log(`  ${arrival.route.shortName} ${dir.headsign ?? dir.direction} — ${arrival.minutes} min`)
    }
  }
}
3

Do the same for buses

mta.bus.arrivalBoard() is the bus counterpart. It uses limitStops instead of limitStations, and groups each stop’s arrivals by route (with an optional headsign) rather than by compass direction.
const busBoard = await mta.bus.arrivalBoard({
  lat: 40.7421,
  lon: -73.9914,
  route: 'M23',
  limitStops: 3,
  limitArrivals: 2,
})

for (const { stop, routes } of busBoard) {
  for (const r of routes) {
    console.log(`${stop.name} — ${r.route.shortName} ${r.headsign ?? ''}`)
  }
}
Poll the board every 30 seconds to stay in sync with the realtime feed. Keep the limits small for a glanceable display — 5 stations with 3 arrivals each reads well on a single screen.
Prefer the raw REST shape? See the Subway Arrival Board and Bus Arrival Board API reference pages.