The grade is a gradient from A to F. The conformance mark is a bright line: a feed either earns it or it does not. An agency can put the mark on its developer page as a credential, and a state program can point to it as a clear bar.
The mark does not change any category score. It reads the scores the pipeline already computes and applies three pass/fail checks.
All three must hold at once:
- Valid — the GTFS validator finds no errors. Warnings and info notices do not block the mark; errors are the ones that break a rider's trip.
- Current — the service calendar has not lapsed and is not inside the expiry window. A feed about to run out does not qualify until it is renewed.
- Accessible — the feed states wheelchair access on at least 90% of stops and 90% of trips. This measures what the feed publishes, not whether a stop is physically usable.
A feed that misses is shown as "not yet", with the specific gap named, never as a failure.
When a feed earns the mark, the pipeline writes two files next to its artifacts:
mark.svg— an embeddable seal, written only when the mark is earned, so the file's presence is the credential. A feed that later loses the mark has the seal removed.conformance.json— the versioned machine-readable result (version,awarded,status, the three criteria withmetand a plain-language detail). Always written.
The agency page shows the mark, its three checks, and a copy-paste embed when the mark is earned.
When earned, copy the snippet from the agency page, or build it directly:
[](https://<site>/agency/<agency-id>/)The mark combines published validity, currency, and the accessibility floor that the rubric treats as a values statement. It does not cover the separate RY2026 agency_id/P-50 identity requirement or certify NTD compliance. The official check remains the agency's own D-10 and P-50 filing.