mcp-nta

An MCP server for Ireland's National Transport Authority (NTA) public transport data. Provides focused, queryable tools that return small, human-readable results — not raw feed dumps.

Built with FastMCP. Inspired by ireland-nta-mcp and tfi-gtfs.

Tools

Tool	Description
search_transport	Find bus stops, train stations, and tram stops by name. Returns IDs, locations, routes served.
search_routes	Find routes by number or name.
get_departures	Real-time departures from a bus stop, train station, or tram stop, filtered by route/time window.
get_vehicle_positions	Live vehicle positions filtered by route or proximity.
get_service_alerts	Active service alerts filtered by route or stop.
get_route_transport	Ordered list of bus stops, train stations, or tram stops on a route.
nearby_transport	Find the nearest bus stops, train stations, and tram stops to a location. Filter by route, radius, or transport type (bus, rail, tram).

Installation

# Using uv
uvx mcp-nta

# Or install with pip
pip install mcp-nta
python -m mcp_nta

Configuration

Environment variables

Variable	Required	Default	Description
NTA_API_KEY	Yes	—	API key from the NTA developer portal
NTA_ROUTES	No	(all routes)	Comma-separated whitelist of routes to index (see Route filtering)
NTA_REFRESH_HOURS	No	24	How often to re-download GTFS data (in hours)
NTA_TRANSPORT	No	stdio	Transport protocol: stdio, http (streamable HTTP), or sse
NTA_HOST	No	0.0.0.0	Bind address (http/sse only)
NTA_PORT	No	8000	Port (http/sse only)

Claude Desktop / Claude Code (stdio)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nta": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["mcp-nta"],
      "env": {
        "NTA_API_KEY": "YOUR_KEY",
        "NTA_ROUTES": "37,39a,DART,Green"
      }
    }
  }
}

Remote access (HTTP)

NTA_API_KEY=YOUR_KEY NTA_TRANSPORT=http NTA_PORT=8000 mcp-nta

The server will be available at http://localhost:8000/mcp. Any MCP client that supports streamable HTTP can connect to this URL.

SSE (legacy)

NTA_API_KEY=YOUR_KEY NTA_TRANSPORT=sse NTA_PORT=8000 mcp-nta

Available at http://localhost:8000/sse. Maintained for backward compatibility — prefer http for new deployments.

Route filtering

By default, the server indexes every route in the NTA GTFS feed — over 1,000 routes, ~7 million schedule entries. This works fine but produces a ~400 MB cache and takes a couple of minutes on first start.

Setting NTA_ROUTES restricts the index to only the routes you care about. This dramatically reduces build time, disk usage, and memory:

	No filter	37,39a,DART
Cache size	~400 MB	~6 MB
First build	~2 min	~1 min
Memory (build)	~120 MB	~40 MB

Each entry in NTA_ROUTES is matched case-insensitively against either:

• Route short name — the public-facing route number/name (e.g. 37, 39a, 102, Green, DART)
• Route type — bus, rail, or tram to include all routes of that type

Examples:

# Just a few bus routes
NTA_ROUTES="37,39a,46a"

# All rail + a specific bus
NTA_ROUTES="rail,37"

# All trams (Luas Green and Red lines)
NTA_ROUTES="tram"

# Everything (default when unset)
NTA_ROUTES=""

Only stops served by whitelisted routes are kept. If the filter changes between runs, the database is automatically rebuilt.

Architecture

Static data

On first run, the server downloads two datasets from Transport for Ireland:

1. GTFS schedule — routes, stops, trips, stop times, and service calendars
2. NaPTAN stop points — supplementary stop metadata (street names)

These are parsed and stored in a SQLite database at ~/.cache/mcp-nta/gtfs.db. On subsequent starts, the server opens the existing database with no parsing — startup is instant. The database is rebuilt automatically when it expires (controlled by NTA_REFRESH_HOURS) or when the route filter changes.

The SQLite approach means the server never loads the full dataset into memory. Queries read only the specific rows they need via indexed lookups.

Real-time data

Real-time feeds (GTFS-RT) are fetched from the NTA API on demand and cached in memory for 30 seconds:

• TripUpdates — delays and predicted arrival times
• VehiclePositions — live GPS positions of vehicles
• ServiceAlerts — disruption notices

Each tool combines a targeted SQLite query against the static schedule with the relevant real-time feed to produce a concise, human-readable answer.

Example

"What buses are due at Oaktree Green for the 37?"

The LLM calls search_transport(query="Oaktree Green"), gets back stop IDs, then calls get_departures(stop_id="8240DB001682", route="37") and gets:

Upcoming departures from Oaktree Green (stop 8240DB001682) for route 37:

1. 37 -> Wilton Terrace | Due: 14:22 (in 4 min) — scheduled 14:20, +1 min late
2. 37 -> Wilton Terrace | Due: 14:40 (in 22 min) — on time
3. 37 -> Wilton Terrace | Due: 15:03 (in 45 min) — scheduled (no live data)

Two tool calls, two small responses, complete answer.

License

MIT