US Public Transit Agency Leads & Intelligence Scraper (FTA NTD)

Build a clean, structured list of every US public transit agency — straight from the official FTA National Transit Database (NTD). Every record carries the firmographics and market intelligence govtech vendors qualify on: agency name, organization type, website, mailing address, fleet size, modes operated, annual ridership, total operating budget, service-area population, FTA region, geo coordinates, plus a 0–100 lead score.

No login, no cookies, no browser, no proxy — fast JSON extraction from the federal open-data portal.

Why this transit-agency scraper?

The only other NTD tools on Apify are chat/MCP wrappers that answer one-off questions. This actor ships the complete structured dataset — the spine of every NTD reporter agency, enriched with the per-mode service metrics (modes, ridership and operating expenses) joined on the NTD ID — so you can filter, score and export a real prospecting list.

Data	NTD chat/MCP tools	This actor (structured leads)
Every US transit agency in one export	❌	✅
Organization type (authority / city / MPO / private operator…)	❌	✅
Website & mailing address	partial	✅
Fleet size (vehicles operated)	❌	✅
Modes operated (bus / light rail / heavy rail / ferry / demand response…)	partial	✅
Annual ridership (unlinked passenger trips)	partial	✅
Total operating budget (operating expenses)	❌	✅
Service-area population & urbanized area	❌	✅
UEI (links to SAM.gov) & FTA region	❌	✅
Lead score (0–100)	❌	✅
Only-new monitor mode	❌	✅

Coverage

The official FTA National Transit Database (datahub.transportation.gov, keyless government open data): ~2,900 US transit agencies across all 50 states, DC and territories — urban and rural reporters, public authorities, city/county systems, MPOs, state DOTs, tribal and private contract operators. Enriched with the latest annual service metrics (modes, ridership, operating expenses) by NTD ID.

Use cases

• Sell rolling stock & EV buses — filter by minVehicles, modes (Bus) and minOperatingExpenses to find agencies with large fleets and the budget to replace them.
• Transit software & ITS (CAD/AVL, scheduling, fare collection, planning, real-time, maintenance/EAM) — target agencies by fleet size, modes, ridership and budget; segment rail vs bus vs demand-response.
• Rail & ferry vendors — set railOperatorsOnly or filter modes to Light/Heavy/Commuter Rail or Ferry.
• Consulting, engineering & A&E — map agencies by service-area population, urbanized area and FTA region for pursuit planning.
• Fuel, parts, tires, shelters, fare media, uniforms — qualify by fleet size and operating budget.
• Government-affairs & grants — agencies with UEI + FTA region for federal funding outreach.
• Recurring intelligence feed — schedule with monitor mode to catch new reporters and fleet/ridership/budget changes each NTD release.

How to use

1. Sign up for Apify — the free plan is enough to try this actor.
2. Open the US Public Transit Agency Leads & Intelligence Scraper, pick states and (optionally) orgCategories / modes, then click Start.
3. Watch agencies stream into the dataset table.
4. Export as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or RSS — or pull results via the Apify API.

Input

{
    "states": ["CA", "TX"],
    "modes": ["Bus"],
    "minVehicles": 50,
    "minOperatingExpenses": 20000000,
    "sortBy": "operatingBudget",
    "maxResults": 1000,
    "monitorMode": false
}

• states — two-letter codes (CA, TX, NY, …). Empty = all.
• orgCategories — transit_authority, local_government, state_government, planning_mpo, private_for_profit, private_nonprofit, university, tribal, other.
• serviceModule — urban, rural, or any.
• modes — match agencies operating a mode (Bus, Light Rail, Heavy Rail, Commuter Rail, Ferry, Demand Response, Vanpool, Streetcar).
• railOperatorsOnly — only rail operators.
• reporterTypes — Full Reporter, Reduced Reporter, Rural Reporter, …
• minVehicles / maxVehicles — fleet-size filters.
• minServiceAreaPopulation / minAnnualRidership / minOperatingExpenses — size & budget thresholds.
• cities / nameQuery / hasWebsite — location & quality filters.
• includeServiceMetrics (default true) — enrich with modes, ridership and operating budget.
• sortBy — leadScore, fleetSize, ridership, operatingBudget, serviceAreaPop, name.
• includeRawFields (default true) — attach the full original NTD row under sourceFields.
• monitorMode / monitorKey — only output NEW or CHANGED agencies since the last run with the same key.

Output

One normalized lead record per transit agency:

{
    "recordType": "transitAgency",
    "recordId": "NTD-90154",
    "ntdId": "90154",
    "agencyName": "Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority",
    "organizationType": "Independent Public Agency or Authority of Transit Service",
    "orgCategory": "transit_authority",
    "orgCategoryLabel": "Public transit authority",
    "reporterType": "Full Reporter",
    "reportingModule": "Urban",
    "modes": ["Bus", "Demand Response", "Heavy Rail", "Light Rail", "Vanpool"],
    "modeCount": 5,
    "isRailOperator": true,
    "annualRidership": 277000000,
    "operatingExpenses": 2100000000,
    "totalVehicles": 2300,
    "fleetTier": "large",
    "serviceAreaPopulation": 9800000,
    "urbanizedAreaName": "Los Angeles--Long Beach--Anaheim, CA",
    "website": "http://www.metro.net",
    "street": "One Gateway Plaza",
    "city": "Los Angeles",
    "state": "CA",
    "stateName": "California",
    "zip": "90012",
    "ftaRegion": "Region 9",
    "uei": "…",
    "latitude": 34.0561,
    "longitude": -118.2353,
    "leadSignals": ["largeFleet", "largeServiceArea", "highRidership", "largeOperatingBudget", "fullReporter", "hasWebsite", "urban", "railOperator", "transitAuthority", "hasUEI"],
    "leadScore": 100,
    "scrapedAt": "2026-06-22T04:00:00.000Z",
    "sourceFields": { "...": "full original NTD row" }
}

Fields are null only when the NTD genuinely doesn't publish them (e.g. a planning agency that operates no service has no modes/ridership).

Monitor mode & scheduling

• Turn on monitorMode and give each saved search its own monitorKey.
• The actor remembers every agency it has emitted (in a named key-value store) and, on the next run, outputs only new or changed agencies — new reporters, fleet changes, ridership/budget changes, contact changes.
• Pair it with Apify Schedules. Monitor mode and the scheduler are complementary: the schedule decides when to run, monitor mode decides what's new — they never conflict.

Automate & schedule

• Apify API — start runs, fetch datasets, manage schedules over REST.
• apify-client for JavaScript and Python — official SDKs.
• Schedules — run on each NTD release to track changes.
• Webhooks — trigger CRM import, Slack alert or an email sequence when a run finishes.

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'MY_APIFY_TOKEN' });

const run = await client.actor('scrapesage/us-transit-agency-leads-scraper').call({
    states: ['CA', 'TX'],
    modes: ['Bus'],
    minVehicles: 50,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(`Got ${items.length} transit agency leads`);

Integrate with any app

Connect the dataset to 5,000+ apps — no code required:

• Make — multi-step automation scenarios.
• Zapier — push new agency leads straight into your CRM.
• Slack — get pinged when a monitored search finds new agencies.
• Google Drive / Sheets — auto-export every run to a spreadsheet.
• Airbyte — pipe results into your data warehouse.
• GitHub — trigger runs from commits or releases.

Use with AI assistants (MCP)

The output is clean, LLM-ready JSON. Call this actor from Claude, ChatGPT or any agent framework through the Apify MCP server — ask your assistant to "list California transit agencies with 100+ buses and a website" and let it run this scraper.

More scrapers from scrapesage

Build a complete government & infrastructure go-to-market stack:

• US Airport & Aviation Facility Leads Scraper — airports, heliports & seaplane bases with owner/manager contacts.
• FMCSA Trucking Scraper — motor carriers, brokers & freight companies with phone/email.
• US Auto Dealer Scraper — licensed vehicle dealers & repair shops.
• Vehicle Manufacturer Leads Scraper — US vehicle & equipment manufacturers from the NHTSA registry.
• USAspending Scraper — federal awards & recipients (transit grants & contractors).
• GSA eLibrary Scraper — federal-contract holders (GSA schedule vendors).
• SAM.gov Scraper — federal entity registrations & opportunities.
• US School Leads Scraper — schools, districts & colleges (school-bus & student-transport buyers).
• US Fire Department Leads Scraper — fire departments (public-fleet & apparatus buyers).
• Website Contact Scraper — enrich agency websites with emails, phones & socials.

Tips

• Big-fleet ICP: minVehicles: 100 + sortBy: "fleetSize" surfaces the largest fleets first (rolling-stock / EV-bus / fleet-software buyers).
• Budget ICP: minOperatingExpenses: 20000000 + sortBy: "operatingBudget" targets agencies with real purchasing power.
• Rail vendors: railOperatorsOnly: true or modes: ["Light Rail", "Heavy Rail", "Commuter Rail"].
• Rural programs: serviceModule: "rural" for rural transit grants/vendors.
• Fresh changes only: turn on monitorMode + a monitorKey and schedule on each NTD release.
• Email enrichment: the NTD publishes website + address; pair with the Website Contact Scraper to add emails.

FAQ

Where does the data come from? The official Federal Transit Administration (FTA) National Transit Database (NTD), published as government open data on datahub.transportation.gov. Each record links back under sourceUrl.

Does it include phone numbers? The public NTD agency table publishes website + mailing address (not phone). Agency name + website + full address already make these directly actionable; pair with the Website Contact Scraper for emails/phones.

What are modes, ridership and operating budget? They come from the NTD service-metrics table, aggregated per agency for the latest reporting year and joined on the NTD ID. Turn off includeServiceMetrics to skip the enrichment.

Can I export to Google Sheets, CSV or Excel? Yes — one click in the dataset view, or automatically every run via the Google Drive integration.

Is scraping this data legal? It collects publicly available federal open data only. You are responsible for using the data in compliance with applicable laws and the portal's terms.

A field is null — why? The NTD doesn't publish that field for that agency (e.g. a planning agency that operates no service has no modes/ridership). Fields are null only when the data genuinely doesn't exist.

Need help?

Open an issue on the actor's Issues tab, or visit the Apify help center. Feature requests — including more NTD tables (facilities, fares, asset inventory) — are welcome; this actor is actively maintained.