Sarathiಸಾರಥಿ
Methodology

If the source is not live, the label is not live.

Sarathi separates the meaning of a transit time from how recently the page was loaded. Scheduled, Typical, Cached, Live and Unavailable are different evidence states, not cosmetic badges.

Updated 7 September 2026

Are Sarathi’s bus and Metro times live?

Only when the value is explicitly labelled Live. A timetable remains Scheduled even if Sarathi fetched it seconds ago. If there is no trustworthy current time, Sarathi uses Typical, Cached or Unavailable instead of silently implying realtime certainty.

1. Scheduled

Scheduled means the time comes from a published timetable or schedule dataset. It is useful for planning but is not a GPS prediction and does not confirm that a vehicle is currently on time.

2. Typical

Typical is used when a service is better described by usual frequency or representative timing than by a trustworthy clock-face prediction. It communicates expected service pattern, not a live arrival.

3. Cached

Cached means Sarathi is reusing a value it fetched earlier. The label signals that the data may be older than the current moment. Cached is not a synonym for Live.

4. Live

Live is reserved for a fresh, authorised realtime feed that Sarathi has actually connected and can distinguish from timetable data. The public site currently states that Bengaluru does not provide Sarathi with a city-wide authorised realtime feed it can present as live.

If this operating status changes, the visible product copy, data-source documentation, schema and machine-readable summary must be updated together rather than changing only one surface.

5. Unavailable

Unavailable means Sarathi does not have a trustworthy time to show. Leaving a field unavailable is preferable to converting missing evidence into an apparently precise arrival estimate.

6. Source freshness is separate from time labels

The current BMTC data is a static GTFS snapshot. The current Namma Metro snapshot is documented as provisional community data with validator warnings and approximate intermediate stop times. Walking access is built from an OpenStreetMap-derived graph prepared for OpenTripPlanner.

Those facts are documented on Data sources and attributions. A data source can be recently copied while still containing Scheduled information; conversely, a future realtime feed would need its own freshness and authorisation checks before Sarathi labels values Live.

7. What happens when service changes?

Road conditions, route diversions, station restrictions, fares and operator timetables can change after a dataset was published. Sarathi does not claim to override operator notices. The traveller should follow the information available from the vehicle, stop, station or operator at travel time.

Freshness labels describe Sarathi’s evidence. They do not guarantee that a public transport service will operate exactly as planned.

For the short badge definitions, see Data labels. For journey behaviour, see Bus + Metro + walking journey planning.