Track live bus vehicle positions by route

This guide shows you how to fetch live bus vehicle positions for a specific route. You will call mta.bus.vehicles() with a route ID, extract latitude and longitude from each vehicle, and display them in a list or on a map.

Find your route ID

MTA bus route IDs combine a borough prefix with the route number. The prefix identifies which borough the route primarily serves.

Prefix	Borough
`B`	Brooklyn
`M`	Manhattan
`Q`	Queens
`Bx`	The Bronx
`S`	Staten Island

Some common examples:

Route ID	Route
`B63`	5th Ave / Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn
`M15`	1st / 2nd Ave, Manhattan
`Q58`	Myrtle Ave, Queens
`Bx12`	Fordham Road, The Bronx

Pass the route ID as a string, using the exact casing shown above (e.g., 'Bx12', not 'BX12').

Call mta.bus.vehicles()

Initialize the MTA client and call mta.bus.vehicles() with the route you want to track.

import { MTA } from 'mta-js'

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

const data = await mta.bus.vehicles({ route: 'B63' })

Process vehicle positions

The response contains a vehicles array. Map over it to extract each bus’s position and relevant metadata.

const positions = data.vehicles.map((vehicle) => ({
  id: vehicle.vehicleId,
  lat: vehicle.lat,
  lon: vehicle.lon,
  bearing: vehicle.bearing,
  nextStop: vehicle.nextStop,
  occupancy: vehicle.occupancyStatus,
}))

for (const bus of positions) {
  console.log(
    `Bus ${bus.id} — (${bus.lat}, ${bus.lon}) — next stop: ${bus.nextStop}`
  )
}

Example response:

{
  "route": "B63",
  "vehicles": [
    {
      "vehicleId": "MTA_8432",
      "lat": 40.6782,
      "lon": -73.9442,
      "bearing": 180,
      "occupancyStatus": "MANY_SEATS_AVAILABLE",
      "nextStop": "5th Ave & Atlantic Ave"
    },
    {
      "vehicleId": "MTA_8917",
      "lat": 40.6651,
      "lon": -73.9890,
      "bearing": 0,
      "occupancyStatus": "FEW_SEATS_AVAILABLE",
      "nextStop": "5th Ave & 39th St"
    }
  ]
}

Display on a map or list

Use the lat and lon values to place markers on a mapping library of your choice. The bearing field gives the vehicle’s heading in degrees (0 = north, 90 = east), which you can use to rotate a bus icon.

// Example: add markers to a Leaflet map
for (const bus of positions) {
  L.marker([bus.lat, bus.lon])
    .bindPopup(`Bus ${bus.id}<br>Next stop: ${bus.nextStop}`)
    .addTo(map)
}

For a simple text list, sort vehicles by proximity to a reference point using the Haversine formula or a geospatial library.

Complete example

import { MTA } from 'mta-js'

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

interface BusPosition {
  vehicleId: string
  lat: number
  lon: number
  bearing: number
  occupancyStatus: string
  nextStop: string
}

async function getBusPositions(route: string): Promise<BusPosition[]> {
  const data = await mta.bus.vehicles({ route })
  return data.vehicles
}

async function displayBusRoute(route: string): Promise<void> {
  try {
    const vehicles = await getBusPositions(route)

    if (vehicles.length === 0) {
      console.log(`No active buses found on route ${route}.`)
      return
    }

    console.log(`${vehicles.length} active buses on route ${route}:\n`)

    for (const bus of vehicles) {
      console.log(`Bus ${bus.vehicleId}`)
      console.log(`Position: ${bus.lat}, ${bus.lon}`)
      console.log(`Heading:  ${bus.bearing}°`)
      console.log(`Next stop: ${bus.nextStop}`)
      console.log(`Occupancy: ${bus.occupancyStatus}\n`)
    }
  } catch (error) {
    console.error(`Failed to fetch vehicles for route ${route}:`, error)
  }
}

await displayBusRoute('B63')

Occupancy status

The occupancyStatus field reflects how full a bus is, based on passenger load data reported by the vehicle. The possible values follow the GTFS-RT occupancy standard:

Value	Meaning
`EMPTY`	No passengers on board
`MANY_SEATS_AVAILABLE`	Plenty of open seats
`FEW_SEATS_AVAILABLE`	Seats limited
`STANDING_ROOM_ONLY`	No seats, standing room available
`CRUSHED_STANDING_ROOM_ONLY`	Very crowded
`FULL`	Bus is not accepting passengers
`NOT_ACCEPTING_PASSENGERS`	Out of service or not boarding

Not all vehicles report occupancy data. When the field is absent or null, omit it from your UI rather than showing a default value.

Combine mta.bus.vehicles() with mta.stops.near() to show the upcoming stops along a vehicle’s path. Fetch nearby stops using the bus’s current lat and lon, then pass the closest stopId into mta.subway.arrivals() or render the stop list alongside the bus position.

const nearbyStops = await mta.stops.near({
  lat: bus.lat,
  lon: bus.lon,
  modes: ['bus'],
})

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Track live bus vehicle positions by route

Complete example

Occupancy status

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​Occupancy status

Complete example

Occupancy status