Shapes.txt file in Public Transit Model

Question

Is a shapes.txt file entry required for a line to work with service area or OD matrix tools in a Public Transit Network created from a GTFS feed? I was under the impression this was optional but have had difficulties getting a line for a future scenario, which I manually entered into the feed stops, stop_times, and trips files, to run. So just wanted to confirm.

Melinda Morang · Accepted Answer

Hi Ryland.  No, shapes.txt is not required for creating a transit-enabled network dataset.  The only thing it's used for is to create the LVEShapes feature class, which holds true geographic shapes to go along with the logical straight-line shapes held in LineVariantElements.  But LVEShapes isn't required and isn't used by  Network Analyst in any way.  You will get analytically valid results in OD Cost Matrix and Service Area without that.